Earnings were up slightly for Murphy Oil Corp. The company posted $113.9 million in first-quarter 2006 compared to $113.2 in first-quarter 2005, as gains in exploration and production operations were offset by losses in the refining and marketing business. The losses were caused by downtime and unrecoverable repair costs from Hurricane Katrina at the Meraux, La., refinery.
Murphy's income from exploration and production operations was $161.6 million in the first quarter of 2006 compared to $124.9 million in the same quarter of 2005 due to higher sales prices for crude oil and natural gas.
Claiborne P. Deming, president and CEO commented, "In the second-quarter 2006, we will continue our exploratory drilling programs offshore Sarawak and the deepwater Gulf of Mexico as well as open a new exploration office in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the downstream business, Meraux starts back up and we continue our build out of retail gasoline stations at Wal-Mart Supercenters. We currently expect earnings in the second quarter to be between $.75 and $1.00 per diluted share."
IW 50 Best Manufacturing Company
