(RTTNews) - Oil and natural gas company Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) said Wednesday after the markets closed that its third quarter profit dropped 68% from last year, as lower crude oil and natural gas sales prices resulted in much lower earnings at its exploration and production business and weaker retail marketing margins in the U.S. as well as weaker refinery margins in the U.K. hurt earnings at its refining and marketing business.

The El Dorado, Arkansas-based company reported net income for the third quarter of $188.9 million $0.98 per share, compared to $584.4 million $3.04 per share for the year-ago quarter.

On average, 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.99 per share for the third quarter.

Revenue for the third quarter fell 37% to $5.18 billion from $8.17 billion in the same quarter last year. Three analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $4.38 billion for the third quarter.

Third quarter income from the company's continuing exploration and production operations fell to $184.1 million from $530.5 million a year ago, mainly due to lower crude oil and natural gas sales prices and higher expenses for production operations and depreciation.

The company's total crude oil and gas liquids production increased 18% to 131,637 barrels per day in the third quarter from 111,751 barrels per day in the second quarter of last year. The company attributed the increase in crude oil production volumes mostly to to a combination of higher production at the Kikeh field, offshore Sabah, Malaysia and new production at two fields that started up during the quarter - the Thunder Hawk field in the Gulf of Mexico and the Azurite field offshore the Republic of the Congo.

Crude oil and gas liquids sales volumes averaged 128,187 barrels per day in the third quarter, up from 111,338 barrels per day in the prior year quarter.

The company's worldwide crude oil and condensate sales prices averaged $61.13 per barrel in the third quarter, sharply down from $112.55 per barrel in the thirdquarter of last year.

Natural gas sales volumes in the third quarter improved to 182 million cubic feet per day from 46 million cubic feet per day a year earlier, mainly due to higher production at the Tupper area in Western Canada and at the Kikeh field, offshore Sabah Malaysia..

North American natural gas sales prices averaged $3.01 per thousand cubic feet in the third quarter, down from $11.51 per thousand cubic feet in the same quarter last year.

Income from the company's refining and marketing operations fell to $37.2 million in the third quarter from $85.8 million in the year-ago quarter, due to weaker weaker U.S. retail marketing margins as well as weak refining margins in the U.K.

For the first nine months of 2009, the company reported net income of $518.8 million $2.70 per share, compared to $1.61 billion $8.39 per share for the same period last year.

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