Fort Worth-based Range Resources said it earned $53 million in the fourth quarter on sharply higher revenues of $458 million. The oil and gas producer also said it agreed to sell properties in West Texas and New Mexico for $275 million, a transaction it expects to close in April. For the year, Range earned $13 million on $1.46 billion in revenue. The results included $55.5 million in impairments taken during the quarter and more than $160 million in impairments for the year. . After adjusting for unusual items, Range earned $73 million, or 46 cents a share, in the quarter, easily topping financial analysts' consensus estimate of 29 cents. It finished the year with nearly $2.9 billion in long-term debt, up from $1.97 billion a year earlier.
CEO Jeff Ventura, in a prepared release, said the company had "outstanding operational results" last year. As previously reported, the company said it had record production in 2012. It spent $234 million to drill 64 wells in the quarter and $1.36 billion for 298 wells in the year. He said the company expects total production to increase by 20 percent to 25 percent in 2013 and liquids production to grow more than that.
Range said the Permian Basin properties it is selling include 7,000 acres producing the equivalent of about 18 million cubic feet a day, approximately 70 percent natural gas and 30 percent liquids. The company sold about $170 million worth of properties in all of 2012.
-- Jim Fuquay
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