Concentrate

The transition to oil from lower-cost dry natural gas targets by the exploration and production (E&P) industry now is complete, with operators more able to concentrate on drilling efficiencies and the higher capital outlays required, according to Canaccord Genuity.

The transition to U.S. oil targets by the exploration and production (E&P) industry now is complete, with operators more able to concentrate on drilling efficiencies and the higher capital outlays required, according to Canaccord Genuity.

With U.S. natural gas prices still the “great uncertainty,” Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) is undertaking a cost-cutting program designed to increase margin while it continues to emphasize oil production growth over gas in its domestic U.S. plays, CEO Steve Chazen said Thursday.

With U.S. natural gas prices still the “great uncertainty,” Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) is undertaking a cost-cutting program designed to increase margin while it continues to emphasize oil production growth over natural gas in its domestic U.S. plays, CEO Steve Chazen said Thursday during a 4Q2012 conference call. He reported lower quarter-over-quarter results related to a one-time Midcontinent natural gas assets impairment charge.

Range Resources Corp. expects to spend about 85% of its $1.3 billion 2013 capital expenditures (capex) budget on liquids-rich and oil projects, predominately in wet areas of the Marcellus Shale and through horizontal drilling in the Mississippian Lime, the Fort Worth, TX-based company said Wednesday.

Marathon Oil Corp., which recently completed the spinoff of its refining arm to concentrate on exploration and production, is evaluating whether to sell some of its interests in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.

Onshore unconventional natural gas producer Penn Virginia Corp. said Friday it will concentrate its exploration activities in oily and liquids-rich plays in 2011 and will spend 40% less than it did this year because of a “weak natural gas price environment and outlook.”

BP plc, the largest acreage holder in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM), will postpone some of its big projects offshore to concentrate on completing the long-delayed Thunder Horse and Atlantis subsea structures.

BP plc, the largest acreage holder in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM), will postpone some of its big projects offshore to concentrate on completing the long-delayed Thunder Horse and Atlantis subsea structures, the Financial Times (FT) reported late Wednesday.