Canada's Petrominerales shares fall after Q1 miss

BANGALORE May 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Canada's Petrominerales Ltd (PMG.TO) fell 8 percent on Thursday, a day after the oil explorer reported first-quarter profit that fell short of market expectations.

Shares of its peers, including Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp (PRE.TO), Gran Tierra Energy Inc (GTE.TO) and its bigger U.S. rival Whiting Petroleum Corp (WLL.N) fell 3 to 4 percent during the day.

Peters and Co Ltd analyst Andrew Boland said production at the company's recently discovered oil well Candelilla in Columbia is probably declining a little faster than many expected.

Oil stocks are getting hammered in the past couple of days amid a fall in prices and any uncertainty in the outlook could weight more on the shares, Boland said.

Separately, the company said its Chief Executive John Wright will assume the role of chairman, replacing Jerald Oaks, who is becoming vice chairman.

The company promoted Chief Financial Officer Corey Ruttan as its new chief executive. Kelly Sledz will be its new chief financial officer.

Petrominerales, in which Petrobank Energy and Resources (PBG.TO) has a 66 percent stake, earned $73.4 million, or 71 cents a share, for the first quarter.

Analysts on average expected earnings of 77 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. [ID:nSGE6450FG]

Shares of the company were down $1.99 at $29.41 in afternoon trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)