Natural gas producers ask Harris for answers on the battleground state
Drillers from Pennsylvania, an energy-rich state, called on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris this week to explain her stance on natural gas. The energy industry touts it as a clean fuel but climate activists claim that the fuel is a threat to global warming. In January, President Joe Biden froze new LNG export permits to examine their environmental impact. This was a move made in the election year in order to gain support from the green voting blocs of his party.
U.S. Oil Firms' Quarterly Reports to Show Depths of Slump
Investors are in for more bad news on the energy front in the coming weeks as a host of the sector's biggest companies report quarterly results following the historic collapse in oil prices.Forecasts for U.S. energy sector earnings this year have dropped along with oil prices, weighing on shares along with worries over debt, layoffs and possible bankruptcies.Analysts see a 58.9% year-over-year decline in energy earnings for the first quarter, steeper even than the 37.7% decline they projected at the start of the month, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Canadian Natural Resources eyes Rail Contracts
Canadian Natural Resources, the country's biggest oil and gas producer, is looking at taking on the Alberta provincial government's contracts to move crude by rail, a senior company executive said on Thursday.Shipping more crude by rail is seen as critical for Canadian oil producers due to congested pipelines that forced Alberta to order mandatory oil curtailments this year.Alberta's United Conservative Party government said in June that it would divest rail contracts amounting to 120,000 barrels of crude per day (bpd) to the private sector this fall.
US Drillers Add Rigs for Fourth Week in Five
U.S. energy firms added oil rigs for a fourth time in the last five, keeping the rig count at its highest in over three years even though crude futures were on track to fall for a fifth week in a row to their lowest level since February.Drillers added 12 oil rigs in the week to Nov. 9, bringing the total count to 886, the highest level since March 2015, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday.The U.S. rig count…
Devon Energy to Sell EnLink Midstream Stakes
Oil and gas producer Devon Energy Corp said on Wednesday it plans to sell its stakes in EnLink Midstream for $3.13 billion cash in a bid to streamline assets and pare debt."The EnLink proceeds, combined with proceeds from the non-core E&P assets already sold and those currently being marketed, will exceed our $5 billion divestiture target," Chief Executive Officer Dave Hager said in statement.Shares of the company rose more than 6 percent to $41.85 before the bell.Devon is trying to simplify its asset portfolio, cut costs and at the same time return cash to shareholders.
Devon Energy Raises Oil Production Guidance
Shale oil producer Devon Energy Corp raised its annual production forecast on Tuesday, saying it expected output would now grow 16 percent from last year compared to an earlier forecast of 14 percent.The Oklahoma-based company said it produced 251 thousand barrels of oil and bitumen per day in the quarter ended March 31, with realized prices per barrel rising 21 percent to $62.93.Total revenue rose to $3.81 billion from $3.55 billion and the company's shares rose 2.12 percent to $37.1 in trading after the bell.Net loss attributable to company shareholders stood at $197 million, or 38
Devon Energy Eyes More Asset Sales
U.S. oil producer Devon Energy Corp said on Monday it was looking to sell even more assets than previously announced in order to focus its portfolio on three shale regions. Devon is now eyeing asset sales of up to $5 billion as it streamlines operations to the SCOOP/STACK, Permian and Rocky Mountain areas, Dave Hager, Devon's chief executive, said at the Scotia Howard Weil energy conference in New Orleans. "We are working on more strategic type moves for the company," Hager said.
Small OK Shale Play Sees Big Bets from Producers
A little-known shale oil play in Oklahoma is attracting more drilling and investment as rising output from newer wells is enticing companies to boost production beyond the giant Permian basin in Texas. The Meramec formation is a part of what is called the STACK region - Sooner Trend Anadarko basin Canadian and Kingfisher counties - where companies such as Marathon Oil and Devon Energy bought up acreage following the oil slump in 2014. Those investments are now paying off…
Hess to Buy Back $1 bln Shares
Hess Corp said on Thursday it would buy back $1 billion worth of shares by the end of 2018, becoming the latest U.S. oil and gas producer to do so amid a recovery in oil prices. Hess said the new buyback program was in addition to the $500 million plan the company had announced in late 2017. Investors have increasingly demanded companies to return more cash as oil prices have more than doubled since their lows in 2016. The news from Hess comes a day after Devon Energy…
US Shale Producers Promise Higher Output and Returns
U.S. shale producers are telling investors impatient for better returns that they can keep boosting oil output aggressively and do so while still making money for shareholders. Investors have pushed top U.S. shale companies to focus on returns, rather than higher output, a move that threatened to slow the breakneck growth in supply sparked by the shale revolution in the world's top oil consumer. For the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, slower shale production gains would have been welcome.
Devon Energy Resuming Operations in Eagle Ford Shale after Harvey
Devon Energy Corp said on Wednesday it has resumed drilling and fracking of wells in the Eagle Ford shale region of Texas after halting operations during Tropical Storm Harvey. The company said its facilities sustained only minor damage due to the storm and that it expects to have the "vast majority" of affected operations online by the end of the week. Reporting by Ernest Scheyder
US Oil Drillers Cut Rigs for 2nd Week in Three
U.S. energy firms cut the number of oil rigs for the second in three weeks, slowing the pace of a 15-month drilling recovery, amid plans to spend less in reaction to declines in crude prices over the past several months. Drillers cut one oil rig in the week to August 4, bringing the total count down to 765, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its report on Friday. There were 381 active oil rigs during the same week a year ago. Drillers have added rigs in 55 of the past 62 weeks since the start of June 2016.
Devon Energy Posts Q2 Profit vs Year-ago Loss
U.S. oil and gas producer Devon Energy Corp reported a quarterly profit, compared with a year-ago loss when the company recorded a $1.50 billion asset impairment charge. The net income attributable to Devon was $425 million, or 80 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, compared with a loss of $1.57 billion, or $3.04 per share, a year earlier. Production fell nearly 17 percent to 536,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. (Reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Penn Virginia to buy Eagle Ford Assets for $205 mln
U.S. oil producer Penn Virginia Corp said on Monday it would buy assets in the Eagle Ford shale in Texas from larger rival Devon Energy Corp for $205 million to expand in the area. The assets, which comprise about 19,600 net acres adjacent to Penn Virginia's core operations, are expected to increase the company's production by about 30 percent or 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Devon's sale of the assets is part of its program to sell $1 billion in assets, first announced in May. Penn Virginia said it would fund the all-cash deal through debt financing.
BP Doubles Down on Deepwater
About 300 BP workers commute 150 miles here by helicopter, from the Louisiana coast to a deep-sea drilling platform that can produce more oil in a day than a West Texas rig can pump in a year. On the deck of Thunder Horse, they work two-week shifts, drink seawater from a desalination plant, and eat ribs and chicken ferried in by boat. On the ocean floor, robots provide remote eyes and arms as drills extract up to 265,000 barrels per day. "There's a whole city below us," said Jim Pearl, Marine Team Leader on the platform.
Devon Energy to Divest $1 Bln in Non-core Assets
U.S. oil producer Devon Energy Corp said it planned to divest about $1 billion of upstream assets across its portfolio. The portfolio includes portions of its Barnett Shale assets. The company expects to start divesting the assets in the second quarter of 2017 and complete the process over next 12 to 18 months. Devon on Tuesday also reported a first-quarter profit, compared with a year-ago loss, helped by cost cuts. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and John Benny; Editing by Maju Samuel)
As Trump Targets Energy Rules, Oil Companies Downplay their Impact
President Donald Trump’s White House has said his plans to slash environmental regulations will trigger a new energy boom and help the United States drill its way to independence from foreign oil. But the top U.S. oil and gas companies have been telling their shareholders that regulations have little impact on their business, according to a Reuters review of U.S. securities filings from the top producers. In annual reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 13 of the 15 biggest U.S.
Devon's Q4 Profit Driven by Cost Cuts
U.S. oil producer Devon Energy Corp reported a quarterly profit on Tuesday, compared with a year-ago loss, driven by cost cutting. The company reported a net profit of $331 million, or 63 cents per share, for the fourth-quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $4.5 billion, or a loss of $11.12 per share, a year earlier. The year-earlier quarter included a non-cash, asset impairment charge of $5.34 billion. Revenue rose 16 percent to $3.35 billion. Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha
Trump Advisors Aim to Free Indian Land Resources
Native American reservations cover just 2 percent of the United States, but they may contain about a fifth of the nation's oil and gas, along with vast coal reserves. Now, a group of advisors to President-elect Donald Trump on Native American issues wants to free those resources from what they call a suffocating federal bureaucracy that holds title to 56 million acres of tribal lands, two chairmen of the coalition told Reuters in exclusive interviews. The group proposes…
Devon Energy's Q3 Profit Beats Estimates
U.S. oil producer Devon Energy Corp reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as cost savings cushioned the impact of weak oil prices. Devon has cut its lease operating expenses, including labor and supply costs, to offset a more than 55 percent side in oil prices since mid-2014. The company, which expects cost savings to reach $1 billion this year, said total operating expenses fell 69.4 percent in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Total production, net of royalties, fell 15.1 percent to 577,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).
