Southwestern Energy Co. of Houston on Thursday August 2, 2012 announced its second quarter 2012 financial results, and reported a spike in profits from its Fayetteville Shale activities.

Southwestern's midstream services, which include natural gas gathering and marketing, made $71.8 million for its second quarter, up 20 percent from $59.6 million in 2011.

"The increase in operating income was primarily due to increase gathering revenues related to the company's Fayetteville and Marcellus Shale properties," the release noted.

At June 30, Southwestern's midstream segment was gathering about 2.1 billion cubic feet per day through 1,829 miles of gathering lines in the Fayetteville Shale, about the same as last year.

Overall, the company posted a loss of $488 million on $429 million revenue compared to income of $167 million on $524 million revenue last year. The loss was due to a "non-cash ceiling test impairment of natural gas and oil properties," and the company stated it would have had a net income of $90.7 million excluding the impairment.