Higher oil prices helped push up third-quarter profits at US-operator Apache.
The oil and gas operator, which announced a £1.1billion deal to buy the UK North Sea Beryl field and a number of others from Exxon Mobil in September, said today it also had record daily production for a sixth consecutive quarter.
Output across the business was 752,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day, compared with 667,000 boe per day in the same period last year.
However, North Sea production slid slightly to 58,269 boe per day in the latest period.
This was down from 59,159 boe in the third quarter of 2010 despite capital investment of £385million in the year to date.
Third-quarter pre-tax profits rose to £1.3billion, from £811million previously, on sales up by £800million to £2.6billion.
The firm started developing an offshore oilfield off western Australia during the most recent quarter.
It also started its first liquefied natural gas project in Australia. It also grew its Egyptian production base and continued to drill Gulf of Mexico, Canada and North America.