Production should rise despite setback

Article Excerpt

APACHE CORP. $66 (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 334.9 million; Market cap: $22.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; WSSF Rating: Average) owns 52.5% of the Van Gogh offshore natural-gas field near western Australia. Apache had planned to begin production at Van Gogh later this year, but a fire on a key transport ship will probably delay this for a few months. Australia accounts for just 5% of Apache’s production, so this delay will only have a minor impact on the company’s earnings. Moreover, production at the Australian operations should rise this year now that Apache has repaired most of the damage caused by last June’s explosion at its Varanus Island natural-gas processing facility. Apache is a buy. buy…