ConocoPhillips expects $8.9 billion from oil asset sales

ConocoPhillips expects about $8.9 billion in proceeds from the sale of assets in Kazakhstan, Algeria and Nigeria and reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit due to higher oil and gas prices.

ConocoPhillips and other U.S. oil companies are selling assets abroad to cut exposure to political risk and conflict, focusing instead on the domestic shale boom and more profitable oilfields at home.

The main black spot cited by ConocoPhillips in its third-quarter results on Thursday was disruption in Libya, which led the company to reduce its full-year production forecast.

The company said it expects full-year production from continuing operations to be in a range of 1.505 million to 1.515 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day.

It had earlier forecast output in 2013 to be 1.515 million to 1.530 million boe per day.

ConocoPhillips said third-quarter profit rose 39 percent due mainly to higher oil and natural gas prices, as well as the sale of the undeveloped Clyden oil sands in Canada and assets in Trinidad and Tobago.

The company has also sold its stake in the massive Kashagan deposit in Kazakhstan's portion of the Caspian Sea, and moved to sell its interests in Nigeria and Algeria.

ConocoPhillips did not say when it expected to realize the proceeds of these sales.

Net income rose to $2.5 billion, or $2 per share, in the third quarter from $1.8 billion, or $1.46 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.47 per share, compared with average analysts estimates of $1.45, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Garima Goel in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Robin Paxton)