Marathon Oil 4Q Weighed Down by Libya, Slumping Demand

Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) revealed a fourth-quarter profit that missed Wall Street expectations, as oil and gas sales volumes softened and production remained stifled in Libya.

The company reported net income of $549 million, or 78 cents a share, down from a year-earlier $706 million, or 70 cents, and missing average analyst estimates of 82 cents.

Marathon built reserves during the quarter, with total proved reserves up to 1.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent a day (boed) from 1.6 billion a year ago, with the help of an acquisition that widened its access to the premier Eagle Ford Shale. It recorded the highest level of rig activity in several years.

However, global pressures on oil and gas demand and macro-political problems in key areas like Libya continued to squeeze Marathon.

Sales volumes averaged 368,000 boed, compared with 417,000 last year, hurt by problems in Libya that caused production available for sale to fall to 93% boed from last year.