Friday, July 31, 2015 -- Part II

This is not an investment site.

This is a huge day for earnings releases by energy companies. I won't get to all of them very quickly. Eventually they will all be posted.

******************************

Enbridge

But let's start with some great news: Enbridge beats 13 cents and reaffirms FY 15 earnings. Reuters says Enbridge's profit "rises as shipments increase."

Canada's largest pipeline company, reported a higher-than-expected rise in quarterly adjusted profit, helped by increased throughput as producers moved more oil by pipes than on rail.

The company, whose Mainline system moves the bulk of Canadian crude exports to the United States, added further capacity over the last 12 months to meet demand.

Mainline shipped an average of 2.07 million barrels per day (bpd) in the second quarter ended June 30, compared with 1.97 million bpd a year earlier.

The company, which has been shielded from a slump in global crude prices because of its fee-based contracts, is currently in the midst of a C$44 billion growth program to fund new projects.

Bloomberg, sounding a lot like The Dickinson Press reports that Enbridge's profit declined 24% amid rising capacity.

Enbridge Inc., Canada’s largest pipeline company, said second-quarter profit fell as the downturn in the energy industry affected how much oil and natural gas the company processed and shipped.

Net income was C$577 million ($443 million), or 67 cents a share, compared with C$756 million, or 91 cents, a year earlier, the Calgary-based company said in a statement on Marketwire Friday. Excluding one-time items, per-share profit was 60 cents, higher than the 47-cent average of 12 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Enbridge’s earnings were weighed down by the impact on its customers of lower oil prices. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, averaged $57.95 in the second quarter, down 44 percent from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg data.

**********************************

 COP

Some more great news. COP

Bloomberg/Rigzone is reporting that COP, the third largest energy producer in the US, reported better-than-expected results.

Excluding certain items, Houston-based ConocoPhillips had a profit of 7 cents a share, which was 3 cents higher than the average of 21 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Production that was the equivalent of 1.595 million barrels of oil a day in the second quarter was the same as a year earlier.

The company can maintain its current rate of production “for a long period of time” if spending is cut to as low as $8 billion, Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance told analysts and investors Thursday on a conference call.

“They are, like everybody else in the industry, achieving more efficiencies,” Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James in Houston, who rates the shares the equivalent of a hold and owns none, said by phone. “They’re getting cost savings from their oilfield service suppliers. That’s why they’re able to keep production the same.

*********************************

Exxon

I'll get back to XOM later, but this helps put the Bakken into perspective.

Note the last paragraph in this short Bloomberg article:

Even as Tillerson cut spending and re-evaluated whether some multi-billion dollar projects make economic sense with oil around $50 a barrel, the company has discovered a field off the coast of Guyana that the government said may hold the equivalent of more than 700 million barrels of crude. Such a prize would be worth about $40 billion at current oil prices. 

700 million bbls total? And XOM is counting on that to save them? The Bakken, at 1 million bopd, produces 365 million bbls in one year and more than that 700 million in less than two years. And Bentek predicted several years ago, that unfettered, the Bakken would produce 2.2 million bopd, or more than the 700 million bbls in one year.