NEW YORK (AP) -- A number of oil and gas companies will gather in Denver this week at an industry conference, including Harvest Natural Resources Inc. and Questar Corp.

Other companies presenting include: Bill Barrett Corp., Patterson-UTI Energy Inc., ATP Oil & Gas Corp. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Chesapeake Energy Corp., Apache Corp. and Brigham Exploration.

Earlier this month, Chesapeake Energy said its second-quarter profit rose 48 percent on increased natural gas production. Both profit and sales beat Wall Street predictions, as natural gas production rose to 156.1 billion cubic feet from 129.8 billion.

Also, Chesapeake said it will boost its average daily production rate by 18 percent to 22 percent in 2007.

Apache, which also presents this week, recently reported a 12 percent drop in second-quarter profit from a year-ago period boosted by a one-time tax gain. During the quarter, production rose 14 percent to 572,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Also appearing at the conference is Patterson-UTI, which provides contract drilling services.

Earlier this month, the company said fewer rigs in operation and mild weather kept a lid on natural gas prices and caused second-quarter profit to fall 19 percent.

Source: NGV Global