Nonoperated

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Corp. has signed a letter of intent to acquire a 25% nonoperated working interest in 5,990 acres in Borden County, TX, the Houston-based independent said Wednesday.

ConocoPhillips expects its 1Q2008 production to be “slightly below” 1.8 million boe/d following an unplanned shutdown at a nonoperated gas processing plant in the San Juan Basin, which was complicated by cold weather. Output in the final quarter of 2007 was 1.84 million boe/d. The Houston-based major issued an interim update ahead of the April 24 scheduled release of quarterly results. The producer noted that in the first three months of this year, the average price of natural gas climbed 19% from the same period a year ago while crude oil prices surged 69%. Henry Hub first-of-month prices in 1Q2008 averaged $8.03/Mcf, compared with $6.77 in 1Q2007. Gas prices in 4Q2007 averaged $6.97/Mcf. Realized domestic refining and marketing margins for 1Q2008 are expected to be “significantly lower” than margins in 4Q2007 because of the absence of a quarterly inventory benefit, higher crude costs relative to benchmarks and lower margins. Conoco said the prices for its “secondary products,” such as fuel oil, natural gas liquids and petroleum coke “did not increase in proportion to the cost of the feedstocks to produce them.” Debt balance for the major was estimated to be about $21.5 billion at the end of March. Stock repurchases in the first three months of this year were estimated at $2.5 billion.

ConocoPhillips expects its 1Q2008 production to be “slightly below” 1.8 million boe/d following an unplanned shutdown at a nonoperated gas processing plant in the San Juan Basin, which was complicated by cold weather. Output in the final quarter of 2007 was 1.84 million boe/d.