Capital

Marathon Oil Corp. plans to cut 2015 spending by 20%, or about $1 billion, year/year with “significant weighting” to U.S. resource plays.

An increased focus on capital returns, uncertainty over global commodity prices and rising geopolitical risks have dampened enthusiasm among exploration and production (E&P) executives worldwide, a survey has found.

The global upstream industry’s capital expenditures totaled $720 billion in 2013, 18% higher than a year before, but margins were squeezed as costs escalated and profits declined, an IHS Inc. analysis has found.

ConocoPhillips, the largest independent in the United States, was the first on Thursday to announce plans to reduce capital spending to cope with the recent downturn in oil prices. Some drilling cutbacks will be made, but not within two of its best rate-of-return plays, the Eagle Ford and Bakken shales.

Canada’s fossil fuel heartland will stick to its mainstays for its next generation of electricity supplies, a ruling by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) has confirmed.

The shift to more oil and liquids production, and higher commodity prices, have failed to lift corporate returns on average capital employed (ROACE), for exploration and production (E&P) companies, which are lower than they were in 2001, IHS Inc. said Friday.

Texas power company Energy Future Holdings Corp. (EFH) — the product of a 2007 leveraged buyout that was the largest ever — filed for bankruptcy after years of struggling against the shale gale, which drove down prices for electricity as well as gas.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. on Tuesday announced a definitive agreement to sell subsidiary Williston Hunter Canada Inc. and its last remaining oil and gas properties in Canada for $67.5 million as part of a strategy to dump more capital into its core assets in the Appalachian Basin.

Pressured by shareholders, ExxonMobil Corp. agreed Thursday to publish, for the first time ever, a carbon asset risk report describing how it assesses the risks of stranded assets from climate change.