OXY With Huge Beat; Hess Does Better Than Expected; Hess Will Slash 2016 Spending, Production Plans -- October 28, 2015

OXY adjusted profit beats expectations on cost cuts; swings to quarterly loss on $2.6 billion in charges;

The company, which has operations in Oman, Texas and North Dakota, posted a net loss of $2.61 billion, or $3.42 per share.

Occidental reported a profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.55 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

From The WSJ, on OXY:

Still, Occidental continued to add to its production. In the latest quarter, production climbed 16% to 689,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

Overall, Occidental reported a loss of $2.61 billion, or $3.42 a share, compared with a profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.55 a share, a year earlier.

The latest quarter’s results included about $3.4 billion in asset impairment charges.
Core earnings were 3 cents a share, while analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast a loss of a penny a share.

Hess does better than expected; still reports a loss:

The New York-based company said it had a loss of 98 cents per share. Losses, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were $1.03 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of $1.22 per share.

Other headlines for Hess:  

• Hess slashes 2016 drilling budget by almost 30%
• Hess pares 2016 spending, production plans after poor quarter

Valero earnings rise 40% on cheap crude oil; profit rises 30 percent; tops forecast

The San Antonio-based company said it had profit of $2.79 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.60 per share.

National Oilwell: better than expected: sees weaker 4Q15;

Earnings per share (excluding one-time items) came in at 61 cents, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 56 cents.

Norfolk Southern Corp beats expectations; profit falls 19% on weak coal;

Norfolk Southern's third-quarter profit fell 19 percent as the railroad hauled 3 percent less freight and restructured some of its operations in response to slowing traffic.

The Norfolk, Virginia, railroad earned $452 million, or $1.49 per share, in the quarter. That's down from $559 million, or $1.79 per share.

Statoil, state-controlled; posted a net loss of $330 million compared with a loss of
$550 million same quarter one year earlier.

Whiting Petroleum, forecast a loss of 25 cents; press release here; a loss of 17 cents; prior to adjustment, a loss of $9.14 vs a gain of $1.32 same quarter last year; Whiting writes off $2.57 billion in assets, including its KOG assets;

Williams Companies, forecast 22 cents; press release here; meets at 22 cents, vs 21 cents same quarter one year ago;

QEP, forecast a loss of 10 cents; press release here; beats; continuing operations, 12 cents; EPS adjusted one cent;

MUR: beats by 20 cents; press release here; 

TSO: beats by 8 cents; press release here;

Disclaimer: the usual disclaimer applies. This is not an investment site. Do not make any investment or financial decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here. I invest in only two or three of all the companies listed on this post today and have no plans to do any trading in any of the companies listed in the near future. As if it would matter anyway. But there you have it.

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Shell Makes Second Major Strategic Change In As Many Months

Bloomberg/Rigzone is reporting:

Royal Dutch Shell Plc made its second major strategic change in as many months, announcing it will take a $2 billion charge as it shelves an oil-sands project in Alberta after walking away from an Arctic drilling program.

Shell is halting work on the 80,000 barrel-a-day Carmon Creek drilling development after deciding the project couldn’t compete in its portfolio. The charge will be recorded in third-quarter earnings results.

The company last month abandoned drilling offshore Alaska indefinitely after it failed to find enough oil or gas in the Chukchi Sea. Earlier this year, Shell withdrew an application to develop the Pierre River oil-sands mine in northern Alberta.

Carmon Creek, announced October 31, 2013: Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) announced its decision to proceed with its Carmon Creek project in Alberta, Canada, expected to produce up to 80,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). Carmon Creek is a thermal in situ project that is 100 per cent Shell owned and will be part of the company’s broader production, refining and marketing business across the full value chain in North America.

The other day there was a Seeking Alpha contribution suggesting Big Oil was in cahoots with Saudi Arabia to destroy the frackers. I always maintained that western Canadian oil sands would go first.