Friday, Buckeye Partners, L.P. (BPL), a provider of transportation, terminalling and storage services for integrated oil companies, reported a rise in profit for the fourth quarter, helped by higher revenues mainly from natural gas storage and energy services segment.
Net income attributable to Buckeye Partners was $77.7 million or $1.17 per limited partner unit, up from $54.1 million or $0.89 per limited partner unit in the year-ago period.
Adjusted earnings per limited partner unit was $1.03, compared to $3.63 in the prior year quarter.
On average, nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.92 per unit for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Fourth quarter total revenue was $578.8 million, up from $527.6 million in the comparable quarter last year.
Analysts expected the company to generate revenue of $441.33 million for the quarter.
The company's product sales were $396.9 million, compared to $370.8 million and sales in the transportation and other services edged up to $181.9 million from $156.7 million in the prior year quarter.
On segmental basis, revenue from pipeline operations declined to $98.5 million from $100.5 million and revenue from terminalling and storage increased to $42.4 million from $31.4 million last year. Natural gas storage revenues surged to $38.8 million from $18.3 million a year ago. Revenue from energy services was $396.4 million, up from $369.1 million in the previous year. Revenue from other operations declined to $8.6 million from $9.8 million last year.
Operating income rose to $96.9 million from $72.4 million in the same quarter last year.
Full year net income attributable to Buckeye Partners was $141.0 million or $1.84 per limited partner unit, compared to $184.4 million or $3.00 per limited partner unit last year. Net income attributable to Buckeye Partners before special items for the full year was $232.5 million or $3.63 per limited partner unit. Total revenue for the full year declined to $1.7 billion from $1.8 billion in the prior year.
Analysts expected earnings of $3.50 per share on revenue of $1.63 billion for the full year.
Buckeye also said that its general partner, Buckeye GP LLC, declared a cash distribution of $0.9375 per LP unit for the quarter ended December 31, 2009, payable on February 26, 2010, to unitholders of record on February 16, 2010.
BPL is currently trading at $53.20, down $2.30 or 4.14% on a volume of 0.37 million shares on the NYSE.
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