Harvest Operations Announces Third Quarter 2012 Financial and Operating Results

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Nov 14, 2012) - Harvest Operations Corp. (HTE-DBE.TO) (HTE-DBF.TO) (HTE-DBG.TO) announces its financial and operating results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2012. The unaudited financial statements, notes and MD&A pertaining to the period are available on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval ("SEDAR") at www.sedar.com and are available on the Harvest website www.harvestenergy.ca. All monetary figures reported herein are Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.

UPSTREAM:

  • Upstream production volumes were 57,686 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in the quarter and 59,696 boe/d for the first nine months of the year, in line with production guidance of 59,000 boe/d for 2012.

  • We invested $113.9 million in the quarter and $477.1 million for the nine months of 2012 in our western Canadian assets. Including BlackGold, we drilled 36 gross (32.8 net) wells in the quarter and 128 gross (114.1 net) wells for the nine months ended September 30, 2012.

  • Netbacks prior to hedging for the quarter averaged $26.55/boe, a decrease of 14% compared to the same quarter in 2011 of $30.96/boe; the decrease is attributable to lower realized commodity prices, and higher operating costs partially offset by lower royalties and transportation costs.

  • Upstream operations contributed $133.3 million of cash from operations in the third quarter of 2012, a 17% decrease from the third quarter of 2011 resulting from lower operating netback.

  • Operating costs for the quarter increased to $17.55/boe compared to $16.36/boe in the same quarter in 2011 due to increased costs for well servicing, repairs and maintenance, processing and other fees.

DOWNSTREAM:

  • Refinery throughput volume in the third quarter of 2012 averaged 84,889 barrels per day (bbl/d), an increase of 96% as compared to a throughput volume of 43,357 bbl/d in the third quarter of 2011 due to planned turnaround maintenance that occurred in 2011.

  • Capital expenditures for our Downstream operations totaled $12.9 million for the quarter and were related to feedstock and product tank recertification, reliability improvements and the expansion of our retail gasoline operation.

  • Cash contribution from operations was $0.2 million for the third quarter of 2012, a $1.8 million decrease from the same quarter in the prior year mainly due to lower refining gross margin, higher operating and purchased energy expenses, partially offset by a higher throughput volume.

  • Third quarter of 2012 refinery margins averaged US$6.03/bbl as compared to US$10.06/bbl in the same quarter of 2011. The decrease in gross margin per bbl is due to lower product crack spreads as a result of increased feedstock costs per bbl and lower refinery yields.