Energy Partners Ltd. posts 4Q loss

(AP) – Independent petroleum producer Energy Partners Ltd. posted a wider fourth-quarter loss Thursday after taking non-cash costs for property impairments.

Investors responded by pushing down investors EPL shares. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $10.30 to $22.14.

For the quarter ending Dec. 31, EPL lost $73.4 million, or $2.31 per share, on revenue of $114.1 million, compared with a year-ago loss in the fourth quarter of $52.5 million, or $1.35 per share, on revenue of $111.6 million.

EPL said a majority of the latest loss was due to $100.4 million of non-cash costs, mostly for impairments of properties in the company’s western offshore area in the Gulf of Mexico.

In the fourth quarter of 2006, EPL took $77.9 million in non-cash impairment charges for onshore petroleum properties acquired in southern Louisiana in 2005, mechanical problems with an offshore well and the termination of an acquisition agreement with Stone Energy Corp.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast per-share earnings of 10 cents on revenue of $111.7 million for the latest quarter. Those forecasts typically do not include one-time items.

For 2007, Energy Partners lost $80 million, or $2.32 per share, on revenue of $454.6 million, compared with a 2006 loss of $50.4 million, or $1.32 per share, on revenue of $449.6 million. Analysts had forecast a 2007 loss of 6 cents per share on revenue of $450.7 million.