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Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) beat Wall Street estimates in its first-quarter earnings report released on Wednesday and added another discovery in offshore Guyana to its production portfolio, though the good news failed to boost share prices in early morning trading.
Despite first-quarter oil prices that were some 20% lower than in 2022, Hess reported Q1 earnings of $346 million, or $1.13 per share, soundly beating analyst estimates of around $1.06 per share, based on data from Refinitiv.
However, these figures compare to Q1 2022 net income of $417 million, or $1.34 per share.
Revenue came in at $2.45 billion for the quarter, just shy of most analyst expectations.
Hess increased its dividend to stockholders in the first quarter by 17% to $0.4375 per share.
At the same time, Hess announced a new discovery at the Lancetfish-1 well in Guyana's prized offshore Stabroek block, a 6.6-million-acre behemoth that has put the former British colony on the global oil map. Hess has a 30% stake in the Exxon-led consortium that has made over 30 high-grade discoveries since 2015.
The most recent discovery was in January, putting resources at over 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the block. Based on Guyana Ministry of Natural Resources data as of late February, the block was pumping 383,000 barrels per day from two floating vessels in the Liza oilfield.
Net oil and gas production for Hess was 374,00 boepd, up 36% from 276,000 boepd in the first quarter of 2022. Breaking that down, Hess reported a 7% increase in net production from the Bakken, and significant uptick in Guyana production, from 30,000 bopd in Q1 2022 to 112,000 bopd in Q1 2023.
Hess shares were up 2.28% on Wednesday at 11:01 a.m. EST, and up 7.34% year-to-date.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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