Apache Corp.’s CFO Roger Plank said Tuesday that the Houston-based producer has been able to grow through the drillbit in several different countries, and as it grows larger, it will layer in new exploration areas. That growth, he said, has the company on pace to reach nearly $1 billion in net income this year on higher production.

Production grew nearly 26% in the second quarter, and Plank, who spoke at Lehman Brothers’ CEO Energy/Power Conference, believes that the third and fourth quarters “could rival and possibly beat the run for the money in the first half.” He said it was “reasonable” to expect earnings around $1 billion this year, with cash flow “perhaps as high as $2.5 billion.”

While new growth appears solid in other parts of the world, U.S. production levels continue to decline — but only production-wise. With a focus on rate of returns (ROR), Plank noted that Apache’s philosophy has been to have “cash flow like hell” to get the ROR out of the ground.

He was quick to note that the Gulf of Mexico operations offer some of the “greatest ROR in the company,” and provide a lot of excess capital. “We have other areas to offset the U.S., and by and large, we aren’t trying to grow through the drillbit there. There are other places we can do that.”

Plank explained that most of Apache’s new growth is coming from overseas finds, with its most important discovery currently at its Qasr field in Egypt. That discovery, he said, may be the company’s most significant in the past 50 years, testing in July at 51.8 MMcf and 2,688 boe/d.

“We’ve had terrific growth this year, and half of that production has come from our international operations,” said Plank. “We are in very good regions, and we’ve put together a portfolio that provides balance on the whole.”

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