Forest Oil widens 1Q loss on write-down

Natural gas and oil producer Forest Oil Corp. said Monday it widened its first-quarter loss because of a write-down for oil and gas properties.

The company reported a loss of $1.2 billion, or $12.32 per share, for the three months ended March 31. That compared with a loss of $4.7 million, or 5 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier.

The results included a ceiling test write-down of oil and gas properties totaling $1.58 billion, net unrealized gains related to derivative instruments totaling $67.5 million, and unrealized losses on other investments and unrealized foreign currency exchange losses totaling $5.9 million.

Excluding those items, Forest Oil earned $27.9 million, or 29 cents per basic share, compared with adjusted earnings of $92.7 million, or $1.06 per basic share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $194.7 million from $376.5 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude one-time items from their estimates, expected profit of 16 cents per share on revenue of $255.7 million.

Forest Oil shares rose $1.84, or 10.4 percent, to close Monday at $19.48.