OREANDA-NEWS. November 12, 2012. Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) reported third quarter 2012 net income of USD 450 million, or USD 0.63 per diluted share, compared to net income in the second quarter of 2012 of USD 393 million, or USD 0.56 per diluted share. For the third quarter of 2012, adjusted net income was USD 454 million, or USD 0.64 per diluted share, compared to adjusted net income of USD 416 million, or USD 0.59 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2012, reported the press-centre of Marathon Oil.

"Marathon Oil's producing assets exceeded expectations in the third quarter, driven by superior execution in our U.S. resource plays and continued strong reliability from our base assets," said Clarence P. Cazalot Jr., Marathon Oil chairman, president and CEO.

 "Our investment in the Eagle Ford shale a little more than a year ago, and our bolt-on acquisitions since then, continue to deliver value beyond original expectations. Not only have we improved the speed and efficiency of our drilling and completions there, we also continue to optimize well spacing which could significantly increase drillable locations and recoverable reserves. One recent Gonzales County well, the Burrow 2-H in which we hold a 100 percent working interest, achieved a 24-hour rate of 6,275 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), of which 4,646 barrels were oil and condensate.

"With a strong position in U.S. resource plays and the very good operational performance we've had this year, Marathon Oil is positioned to meet or exceed our full-year production targets. In the case of exploration and production (E&P), we are raising our 2012 available for sale estimates to between 375,000 and 385,000 net boed, excluding Libya, which further demonstrates our confidence in our ability to grow production at a 5 to 7 percent compound annual rate from 2010 through 2017.

"Additionally, over the past year, we have built a more balanced exploration program with significant resource potential and lower risk. In the next 15 months, Marathon Oil plans to drill a number of impact wells in emerging and proven oil plays across the Rift Trends in Kenya and Ethiopia, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and offshore in the Gabon presalt, Norway and the Gulf of Mexico," Cazalot said.