Oil drilling contractor Noble Corp. on Wednesday said second-quarter net income rose nearly 30 percent on double-digit growth in its contract drilling services business.
For the quarter ended June 30, Noble reported net income of $375.7 million, or $1.40 a share, compared with $290 million, or $1.08 a share, in the second quarter of 2007. Revenue rose to $812.9 million from $726 million.
The quarter included an after-tax gain of 11 cents a share related to the sale of Noble's contract drilling service in the North Sea and an after-tax charge of 1 cent per share related to an independent investigation into Noble's Nigerian operations.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial forecast, on average, earnings of $1.31 a share on revenue of $834.9 million.
Noble said contract drilling service revenue rose 19 percent in the second quarter.
In the first six months, the Sugar Land, Texas-based firm reported net income of $759.9 million, or $2.83 a share, compared with $540.4 million, or $2.01 a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose to $1.67 billion from $1.37 billion.
The 2007 earnings reflected a charge of $8 million related to the sale of noncore assets and the most recent six-month period included the after-tax gain on the North Sea business sale.
Noble released its earnings after the market closed. Its stock closed down $3.21 at $52.76 share Wednesday.
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On the Net: http://www.noblecorp.com
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