The results have made company president and CEO Jim Mulva a happy man. According to Mulva, “Our operations turned in another quarter of solid performance [with] oil and gas production [at] 1.61 million barrels-of-oil-equivalent per day, and our refining crude oil capacity utilisation rate [at] 95%.”

“We made further progress in strengthening our balance sheet, with our debt-to-capital ratio declining from 34% to 32% during the quarter. In addition to operating cash flows of US$2.1 billion, we received proceeds of US$449 million from asset sales. This cash generation allowed us to invest US$1.5 billion in capital spending, pay US$294 million in dividends, and reduce balance sheet debt by approximately $700 million,” said Mulva.

“Favourable commodity prices and margins, along with further synergy capture, helped income from continuing operations grow 25% per share on a diluted basis over the first quarter of 2003, and provided significant improvement over the previous quarter. We also experienced good results from our Midstream segment, and our chemicals joint venture continued to improve its performance,” he added.

According to Mulva, ConocoPhillips will continue along this successful path, which is part of its operating plan, but will maintain its focus and discipline in trying to optimise its operations and finances. However, Mulva did warn the company was not planning to increase its mooted capital program.

“The entire company continues to operate well under favourable market conditions. However, we do not anticipate increasing our previously announced capital program, which is directed toward progressing our legacy projects and clean fuels initiatives, in response to such conditions,” said Mulva.