Excluding discontinued operations attributable to the pending sale of the company’s Canadian assets, third quarter oil sales averaged 24,994 barrels per day (bpd), natural gas liquids sales averaged 19,997 bpd and gas sales averaged 335 million cubic feet per day.
The reported price for oil was $70.27 per barrel and included $11.98 per barrel related to deferred revenue from volumetric production payments (VPPs) for which production was not recorded. The price for natural gas liquids was $42.48 per barrel. The reported price for gas was $7.11 per thousand cubic feet (mcf), including $.58 per mcf related to deferred revenue from VPPs for which production was not recorded. During the third quarter of 2007, Pioneer recorded in other income $28 million ($18 million or $.15 per diluted share after tax) associated with the sale of Alaskan Petroleum Production Tax credits.
Third quarter production costs averaged $12.24 per boe. DD&A expense for the quarter was $114 million, or $12.28 per boe, and included a charge of $17 million ($11 million or $.09 per diluted share after tax), due to downward price-related proved reserve revisions for properties in the Uinta/Piceance basin as a result of extremely low Rockies spot gas prices of $.60 per mcf as of September 30, 2007.
Scott Sheffield, chairman and CEO of Pioneer, said: Third quarter production from continuing operations was up 12% from the prior year quarter. This strong organic production growth coupled with the opportunity to enhance per-share performance with share repurchases give us confidence that we can achieve our 12+% compounded annual production growth target for 2007 through 2010.
