Noble Energy said on Friday it plans to reallocate some near-term investments to US oilfields outside of the Permian Basin due to supply constraints and reported weaker-than-expected quarterly profit.Transportation bottlenecks have driven down prices of regional crude, compared with the US benchmark, and threatens to dampen the outlook for continued output growth from the top US shale basin.
Total sales volumes fell 15.2 per cent to 346,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boep/d) in the second quarter.
Net loss attributable to Noble narrowed to $23 million, or 5 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $1.5 billion, or $3.20 per share, a year earlier.
The company took a charge of $2.32 billion in the year-ago quarter related to the sale of some assets.
The Houston-based company's total revenue rose to $1.23 billion from $1.06 billion.
Excluding one-time items, Noble posted a profit of 17 cents per share, while analysts had on average expected 22 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.