Apache Corporation reported a 15% increase in quarterly profit, as the largest independent US Oil and Gas Company benefited from higher prices and its acquisition of Mariner Energy.
Profit in the fourth quarter was $670 million, or $1.77 per share, compared with $582 million, or $1.72 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Apache, based in Houston, said today that its oil and natural gas output in 2010 averaged a record 658,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, up 13% from a year earlier.
