Murphy's income for the three months to March, including discontinued operations, came to $360.6 million.
That is above the $290.1 million earned in the same period a year earlier. Income from discontinued operations for the quarter contributed $152.6 million to the company's bottom line however, compared to just $8.6 million a year earlier.
That puts Murphy's income from continuing operations in the quarter at $208 million, down from $281.5 million in 2012.
Income was hit by higher expenses for exploration, administration, financing and income taxes, Murphy said.
Murphy's profit was driven by a strong domestic performance, particularly from the Eagle Ford shale of Texas. Unfortunately for Murphy, difficulties in the rest of the world more than offset those gains.
Canada was not kind to Murphy, due to "extremely weak" heavy oil prices, dry hole costs associated with poor wells in the Muskwa shale of Alberta, lower sales volumes and prices and higher extraction costs.
Murphy also had a rough quarter in Malaysia due to sales volumes and prices from at natural gas fields offshore Sarawak that were "significantly lower than the prior year".
Well workover costs of $11.3 million in the Republic of the Congo also weighed, as did unsuccessful drilling costs for a shallow-water well in Cameroon and geophysical expenses for exploration licenses in Australia, Cameroon and Indonesia.
The production story proved a bit more positive for Murphy. The company produced 126,888 barrels per day of crude, condensate and gas liquids, an increase of 18% over the 2012 period. Almost all of that came from the Eagle Ford.
Natural gas sales were down to about 450 million cubic feet per day, about 14% less than the 525 MMcfd sold in the 2012 period. The drop was primarily due to lower production in the Tupper area of Western Canada and lower sales volume from gas fields offshore Sarawak, Malaysia, primarily due to planned maintenance at the company's gas receiving facility.
Downstream operations were also a bright spot for Murphy, at least in the US, where Murphy made a profit of $29.4 million, compared to a loss of $7.2 million in 2012.
Murphy is spinning off its downstream unit into a separate listed entity. The spin off is expected to be complete in the second half of the year.
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