Canada’s Crescent Point 3rd-qtr net loss widens, shares fall

Canadian oil and gas producer Crescent Point Energy Corp said on Thursday its third-quarter net loss more than doubled, driven by tax payments and foreign exchange losses, sending shares sharply lower.

The Calgary-based company also said it would boost capital expenditures in 2017 to C$1.55 billion ($1.21 billion) from the previous estimate of C$1.45 billion. Most of that money is earmarked for work in the Uinta Basin in Utah, the Williston Basin in Saskatchewan and early work at its emerging Lodgepole play, also in Saskatchewan.

Shares were down 4.18 percent at C$8.93 on Thursday afternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Crescent Point, which has been selling non-core assets to fund its capital program and pay down debt, said it had reached deals on C$190 million worth of assets in the quarter, and that it was looking to raise another C$100 million to C$200 million through further sales.

The company said its net loss in the period was C$270.6 million ($211.3 million), or 50 Canadian cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, more than double the loss of C$108.5 million, or 21 Canadian cents, in the third quarter of 2016.

Operating profit, which excludes most one-time items, was C$33.7 million, or 6 cents per share. That comes after a loss of C$22 million, or 4 cents, a year earlier.

The company's cash flow, a key indicator of its ability to pay for new acquisitions and drilling, jumped 33 percent to C$437 million.

Crescent Point's production rose 10 percent to 176,069 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) during the quarter. It boosted its 2017 production guidance slightly to 175,500 boe/d from 174,500 boe/d.

Crescent Point focuses on producing light and medium oil from Saskatchewan, North Dakota and northeast Utah.

(Reporting by Nia Williams in Calgary, Julie Gordon in Vancouver and Nichola Saminather; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Lisa Shumaker)