Profits

U.S. manufacturers of ammonia-based nitrogen fertilizer made with low cost natural gas feedstock are raking in profits and moving ahead with plans to expand domestic operations.

Chevron Corp. expects to report “notably higher” results for 4Q2012 than profits in the previous three months, management said in an interim update.

Like many, but not all, producers, Houston-based Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. has shifted to oil because that’s where the profits are.

Williams, whose natural gas midstream and pipeline infrastructure stretches from Canada into the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, is tweaking its earnings forecasts lower for the next two years based on conversations with customers that indicate activity will be slower in the short term.

Williams, whose natural gas midstream and pipeline infrastructure stretches from Canada into the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, is tweaking its earnings forecasts lower for the next two years based on conversations with customers that indicate activity will be slower in the short term.

Halliburton Co. reported Wednesday that its profits fell in 3Q2012 from a year earlier in part because of inflated raw materials, but the company also took a sharp hit from the decline in U.S. onshore drilling, which likely won’t accelerate until next year, company executives said Wednesday.

Despite taking a significant hit in its 2Q2012 profits related to its 25% interest in the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), which is now on the sales block, San Diego-based Sempra Energy executives view the natural gas pipeline as a “significant” asset long term because of its potential role in moving gas bidirectionally from the developing parts of the Utica and Marcellus shales.

Despite taking a significant hit in its 2Q2012 profits related to its 25% interest in the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), which is now on the sales block, San Diego-based Sempra Energy executives view REX as a “significant” asset long term because of its potential role in moving natural gas bidirectionally from the developing parts of the Utica and Marcellus shales.

U.S. onshore and deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) output helped Anadarko Petroleum Corp. post record sales volumes in the second quarter, but profits plunged following a $978 million write-down related to low natural gas prices on coalbed methane (CBM) properties.