Amerada Announces 58% Drop In Profit

Amerada Hess Corporation, an oil explorer and US East Coast refiner, has said that first quarter net income fell by fifty eight percent on lower energy prices and a losses at its refining business. Net income declined to $141 million, or $1.58 a share, from $337 million, or $3.79, a year earlier, the New York based Amerada Hess said in a statement. Revenue fell by twenty eight percent to $3.02 billion from $4.18 billion. Oil and natural gas prices tumbled in the first quarter as the slumping economy and mild US weather curbed demand. Hess's refining and marketing unit posted a $22 million loss as a jump in the price of crude oil raised costs faster than refiners could pass them on to customers. Profit a year earlier was at $105 million. “They got hit with the difficult refining market like everyone else, but they more than made up for that with a phenomenal exploration and production number,” said Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein analyst Christopher Malone.

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