Dividends

Exploration and production companies were among the leading firms that drove the fastest growth in dividend payments during the first quarter, according to the latest tally from Janus Henderson Group plc. The active asset manager’s Global Dividend Index showed that dividend payments in the United States rose 10.4% on an underlying basis to a record…

ConocoPhillips revealed Wednesday that in the last three months of 2011 it acquired more than 100,000 acres in North American liquids-rich shale plays, bringing its unconventional acquisitions last year to more than 500,000 acres.

Pittsburgh’s CONSOL Energy Inc., which has increasingly been focused on its Appalachian natural gas operations, agreed Thursday to sell Noble Energy Inc. half of its 663,350 net-acre leasehold in a portion of the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, including a half-stake in existing wells, under a multi-year transaction valued at $3.4 billion.

ConocoPhillips is securing thousands of acres in emerging resource plays across Canada and the United States as it readies to become a stand-alone explorer, a company executive said Wednesday.

Pennsylvania-based producer Rex Energy Corp. is partnering in the Marcellus Shale with a subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. in a transaction expected to pay dividends for years to come, the companies said last week.

BP plc’s cost-cutting measures, implemented two years ago, are beginning to pay big dividends, the oil major said last week. Costs are projected to fall by $4 billion this year from 2008, which is $1 billion more than the producer forecast in June.

The coalbed methane (CBM) play in the Atlantic Rim of Wyoming continues to pay dividends for Denver-based Double Eagle Petroleum Corp., which Wednesday reported a record 230% increase in 4Q2008 production over the same period of 2007.

XTO Energy Inc.’s success with the drillbit continued to show dividends in the third quarter, with its production up 34% from a year ago to 1.4 Bcfe/d, compared with 1.045 Bcfe/d in 3Q2004. XTO’s total revenues nearly doubled to $964.2 million from $507.4 million, and earnings were up 122% to a record $312.8 million (86 cents/share), from $140.8 million (41 cents). Following the 3Q announcement, XTO raised its full-year production guidance and development budget.

The industry scramble to find new gas supply sources should begin paying significant dividends as early as 2006, according to consultants at Arlington, VA-based Energy Ventures Analysis (EVA). By 2025, EVA sees the potential for 23.8-33.2 Bcf/d of additional gas supply coming from a wide variety of new sources.