Bidness ETC - ConocoPhillips, Among Four Oil Companies, Agrees To Contribute To Quebec Oil Spill Damage

While insisting that the industry is not to blame, several oil companies agreed to contribute to the Lac-Megantic oil spill crash.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), along with Shell, Marathon and Irving, has agreed to pay part of their portion to the fund to compensate for the families of the 47 victims of the 2013 oil train accident at Lac-Megantic in the Canadian province of Quebec. The move is seen as an attempt for the oil majors and minors to avoid being dragged into litigation. The Canadian government and General Electric will also contribute their portion to the fund.

Whilst the information on the individual contributions from each stakeholder is not available, it is reported that the total amount for the fund is said to be $345 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. This seems to be a lot of money, but is still less than the $400 million retirement package that Exxon Mobil’s former CEO received.

The Canadian Pacific Railway has not yet agreed to the settlement, as the judge had to delay the decision on the settlement. Furthermore, the nation’s railway operator has asked to protect it from any litigation in future.

It is usual for oil and gas companies to pay millions of dollars as fines instead of devoting resources to challenge lawsuits filed in courts and spend countless years in getting the verdict in its favor. However, rebuilding Lac-Megantic is likely to cost as much as less than $3 billion, and take up to less than a decade for the small Quebec City to turn itself around.

The strategy has worked for the most part. In 2009, the Canadian National ethanol train derailed and collided in Cherry Hills, Illinois, causing in the death of a woman and injuring several others. The railroad organization paid the aggrieved family members around $36 million, without having to endure court battles.

Following that payment, Canadian National railway continued to use the same old inadequate DOT-111 tank cars to move its crude oil and ethanol supply to Illinois, though the US Department of Transportation stated in its report that the tragedy was a result of the inadequate design of the tank cars.

Despite suffering from two derailing this year, Canadian Pacific Railway is still able to clock in profits at around $700 million, despite the derailments costing around $40 million in damages. In all likelihood, ConocoPhillips is going to be no different when it comes to understanding the cost of doing business by going for monetary settlement instead of fixing the mess that oil major creates.

ConocoPhillips’ stock price ended the day at $63.15, a gain of less than 1% from the previous day.

Bidness Etc - Exxon Mobil Trims Capital Expenditure By $4.64 Billion For FY15

Exxon's stocks were trading 1% down during trading hours today.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) reported Wednesday that it will trim its capital expenditure by $4.64 billion for the fiscal year 2015 (FY15), joining other oil giants which are also considering slashing their spending for the current year.

However, the company intends to stick with its initial product target, which was made when crude was worth more than $100 per barrel, believing that the demand for crude will continue to rise throughout the year.

The oil giant said it will cut its capital spending 12% to $34 billion for FY15, compared to earlier estimates of $38.5 billion.

Exxon's stocks were trading 1% down during trading hours today.

WSJ reported that more than two dozens of independent oil producers have decided to slash its capital expenditure for the current fiscal year by almost $24 million, down from last year’s spending. BP Plc trimmed its spending for FY15 by 13% YoY in February.

Although, Exxon CEO Rex Tiller said that the company will not change its long-term approach to capital allocation, average capital expenditures are likely to be less than $34 billion for FY16 and FY17.

Following years of high spending on massive projects worldwide, Exxon has decided to reduce its capital spending. When crude was trading more than $100 per barrel, oil companies were striving to drill more rigs and enhance their profitability, which resulted in huge development expenses.

In past few months, oil has rallied mostly due to slashing of capital expenditure by oil producing companies, which could aid to bring the oil prices back to its initial level. In mid-February, Brent surpassed $60 for the first time in 2015

The Texas-based oil company said that commodity prices had driven its business strategy, as it plans to raise production level by 2% YoY for FY15. It will further upgrade its new project in Indonesia, Canada, and Angola in FY15. For FY 16 and FY17, it had planned to upsurge development of projects in United Arab Emirates, Russia, and Australia.

Recently in April, the company has been down on its ratings though as the company has lodged a case at the Stockholm arbitrage court against Russia due to the reason of tax dispute because of the excess of its ongoing project in Russia. as notified by the spokeswoman for Russia’s Energy Ministry. The details of this project however weren't disclosed to the media thought through press release. The company itself believes that they have overpaid profit taxes on its oil and gas project Sakhalin-1,. In this the company itself owns a stake of 30% and is seeking reimbursement of their part in this project.

Bidness Etc - Shares of Halliburton Sold By Traders on Showing Strength

Shares of the Halliburton were seen to be traded off as the share price increased on Wednesday, 18th March 2015

On Wednesday, 19th March 2015 Halliburton saw the trade inside the company’s stock index to have increased by a mile due the strength of the share price. According to a research note released by Analyst Rating News, it was observed that the company recorded an inflow of $75.26 million on the upticks of the stock exchange. As for the downticks that were recorded on the same day, the outflow was recorded at an amount of $113.35 million. The total money that was reported to have flown out of the company by end of the trading session was $38.09 million.

Halliburton Company was of the biggest companies to have experienced such a huge amount of money flowing out of the stock. Analyst Rating News analysts recorded that the company came around as being the 13th company on the list of companies which had the highest outflow of money for the day.

The oil field services company initiated the trade with a share price of$40.06 on the stock index. After being through a heated up trading session, the share price saw an increment in the share price by $1.31 reaching up to a price of $41.59, thus closing the day at a higher price and showing all the signs of strength. This change in the company’s share price has been marked as a very positive change keeping in mind the oil prices on a global level.

Quite a lot of financial firms have covered the stock of Halliburton Company and given different ratings and opinions on the company’s stock. Financial company Oppenheimer has analysts who have downgraded the share price of the oil field service providing company as previously the same firm granted the company a price target of $64.00 and now it has been lowered to an amount of $60.00. A rating of an ‘outperform’ has also been granted to the oil company. This research note was released on 12th March 2015. On the other hand, Vetr analysts have a completely different view on the stock activities of the company as they have increased the price target of the oil drilling company to $47.25 and have also improved their ratings on the firm from a ‘buy’ to a ‘strong buy’ now. This research on the company from Vetr analysts was made on 10th March 2015. BMO Capital analysts have also upgraded the ratings on the company in which they suggested an ‘outperform’ rating on the shares and gave a price target of $53.00, mentioning the details submitted in a research note on 18th February 2015.

Bidness Etc - Halliburton Plans to Cut off Jobs As Oil Price Decreases

Halliburton Company plans to cut off 8% of its workforce as oil prices all over the world faced a decline. The company has been facing a tough time lately, with oil prices all over the world fluctuating and eventually falling.
The oil service provider has decided to cut off thousands of jobs from its workforce globally. As of California, the company’s workforce is small and has only 600 employees in total and it’s not confirmed whether the company will fire employees from its main headquarter in USA or not.
Officials said that the company will cut off around 5,200 to 6,400 jobs in the upcoming layoff that the company feels it should implement.
According to a company’s spokesperson, Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) values each of its employees but the prevailing oil prices in the market have forced the company to take decisions that are for the company’s welfare.
Halliburton’s officials said that the company is still observing the difficult situation that the company is in and will make further decisions accordingly. The oil prices in the global market have fallen by around 60% which is a huge disappointment to all the companies working in the oil space.
Last month, Sclumberger Company, that is an oil services provider as well, announced that it would be Cutting off 9,000 jobs due to the collapse in sales. Baker Hughes, a company that opposes Halliburton in the oil field business, also declared termination of 7,000 employees in totality. Weatherford is another oil field services provider that disclosed its plans of annulment of 8000 jobs in the company.
According to a study, the oil industry has lost a total number of 21,000 jobs in the month of January, all because of the recession in the oil prices. In a recent press release, Halliburton also confirmed that this layoff of jobs was not due to the company’s plans of getting its hands on its rival Baker Hughes.
According to a firm named Challenger, oil companies have cut off 22,000 jobs since the summer of 2014, when the oil prices began to drop for the first time.
Halliburton Company is an oil field services provider that works globally, with its headquarters in Texas, USA and Dubai, UAE. It is the world’s second biggest oil services company that is currently active in over 80 countries all over the world. It has subsidiaries and branches and brands globally and has around 100,000 employees.

Halliburton Company Experiences Rise In Share Price

Halliburton Company has experienced a massive rise in the shares by over 8.43% in the first week of February. The rise in the shares for the past week was higher than the rise which the company has experienced during the past 4 weeks, that came around at 8.95%. Due to the zealous buying spree that the investors went on at Halliburton, the share price jumped 0.01 points in the market.
According to the most recent data accessible in the market, the net money flow that the company received before the market closed for the day of Monday was $11.81million. The up-ticks resulted in an inflow of $116.48 million and the down-ticks came out at $104.67 million. The finalized up/down ratio that appeared was 1.11, which gave out a definite sign that progressive changes are expected by the company’s financial doings.
The expected 52-week high of the share is 74.33 and the low that is anticipated is 37.21. From block trade, the net flow of money was $18.89 million.
According to a report released on January 15th, short interest shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) were 35,019,555 in total. This marked the rise of the shares by almost 18% as short interest shares from December 2014 were 29,751,215 in totality.
The oil-field service providers saw a major rise in the short interest shares. In the past month, the percentage increase in short interest shares was seen at 42.61%, and if looked at the past three months’ status, the percentage comes around at 158.5%. The company’s current short interest ratio is 2.21 which can be looked at in a positive manner as a low interest ratio, which explains that the company is looking towards a positive perspective, while high short interest ratio defines a company’s weak position.
The highest value of a share that Halliburton has experienced so far in a year is $74.33 and the lowest recorded is $37.21.
Halliburton is an oil-field service supplier that works worldwide. Its main headquarters are in Texas, USA and Dubai, UAE. The company gives services to extract oil from the fields, and these services include exploration and development. It also provides guidance to companies for the production of natural oil and gas in Europe, Africa and Asia. The company also caters the Middle East where its CEO David J. Lesar resides and looks after the company’s headquarter in Dubai. The oil-providers are currently working in over 80 countries all over the world.