Arco Official Predicting Big Rise in Profits

Atlantic Richfield hinted Tuesday that it expects profit this year to exceed $840 million, or $4.60 a share, up more than a third from last year, and officials painted a brightening picture for the company because its cost cutting has positioned it to exploit the recent rise in crude oil prices.

In response to questions after Arco’s annual meeting of shareholders in Beverly Hills, Chairman and Chief Executive Lodwrick M. Cook said analysts will probably have to “take another look” at forecasts that the company will earn $4.60 a share this year.

Cook wouldn’t elaborate, but he made it plain that he considers the estimate low. Some analysts see Arco’s 1987 results exceeding $900 million, compared to last year’s $615 million, or $3.38 a share.

The Los Angeles-based energy company said it slashed operating costs by an amount greater than its earnings last year. The sale of less profitable U.S. oil reserves and consolidations cut domestic operating costs outside Alaska to $12.40 a barrel, compared to $17 a year ago.

Separately, at Chevron’s shareholder meeting in San Francisco, the state’s largest oil company fended off protests of its holdings in Angola and South Africa and its handling of toxic waste.

Shareholders calling for Chevron to divest its holdings in South Africa won the support of about 10% of the shares voted--twice the percentage won by conservative activists who want Chevron to pull out of Marxist Angola.

“The first principle of international business is that a company must stay out of the politics of the host country,” said Chairman and Chief Executive George M. Keller.

Keller, who is also president of the industry’s lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, reiterated his warning of increasing U.S. dependence on imported oil.

Times staff writer Victor Zonana in San Francisco contributed to this story.