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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (57067)	10/29/2009 4:11:26 PM
From: KyrosL	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 218195

Maybe this spooked a few people: Conoco details plans to sell assets By Sheila McNulty in Houston and Bernard Simon in Toronto Published: October 28 2009 14:08 \| Last updated: October 28 2009 23:45 ConocoPhillips, the third largest US oil company, outlined plans to sell $10bn worth of assets over the next two years on Wednesday, including its 9 per cent stake in the Syncrude oil sands project in Canada. Jim Mulva, chief executive, said Conoco also would sell the bottom-performing 10 per cent of its exploration and production assets in Canada and the continental US, some natural gas assets in the North Sea, and pipelines and terminals in the US. “We have received a lot of phone calls,” he said. “We think that what we have in mind is achievable.” The asset sale programme was announced earlier this month, along with a $1.5bn cutback in 2010 capital spending. The company this year pledged to scrap its growth-through-acquisition strategy to focus on organic growth. The flaws in that strategy emerged when falling commodity prices forced it to take a $34bn writedown on the reduction in its asset values at the start of the year, cut 1,300 jobs, and scale back capital expenditures to $12.5bn this year from $15.3bn in 2008. Mr Mulva said Conoco would not cut spending in exploration and production, which would receive 90 per cent of the $11bn in capital spending planned annually for the next few years. The fall in oil and natural gas prices from last year’s highs is still taking its toll. Conoco on Wednesday rep-orted earnings of $1.5bn, or $1 per share, in the third quarter, down 71 per cent from the year-earlier quarter. Conoco’s shares fell $1.41, or 2.7 per cent, to $49.49. ConocoPhillips’ stake in Syncrude is expected to attract interest both from companies that have a stake in the oil sands and from newcomers. One likely bidder is Calgary-based Canadian Oilsands Trust, Syncrude’s biggest shareholder with 37 per cent. Its partners include, among others, ExxonMobil, Nippon Oil, Suncor and Nexen. Chinese and South Korean oil groups have stepped up their interest in the oil sands as a way of securing future oil supplies. Korea National Oil Corporation bought Harvest Energy Trust for $1.8bn earlier this month, while PetroChina paid $1.9bn for two oil sands projects. The Alberta oil sands are estimated to contain the world’s biggest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia. Mr Mulva said its full-year cost-reduction target of $1.4bn had been achieved, and said the company’s “refocused exploration programme” was delivering strong results, pointing to efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, onshore US shale gas and in Australia’s Browse Basin. ft.com

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (57067)	10/29/2009 4:39:36 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 218195

The Canadian oil sands will be a great source of road building material over the next 10,000 years, for swarms of electric vehicles... Tesla Roadster sets new record by going 313 miles on one charge topspeed.com

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (57067)	10/29/2009 4:57:34 PM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218195

ask tommaso. last he said, it is the bulk of his family's net worth.

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (57067)	10/29/2009 5:06:46 PM
From: Tommaso	Respond to of 218195

Actually the price has doubled since early this year: finance.yahoo.com And I bought half of what I hold at that low price. The other half I bought at a much lower price several years ago. The dividend was much higher a year ago when oil was coming down from $140, and has just been raised from 25 cents to 35 cents. It seems natural, for the distributions and the stock price of a company that manufactures high quality crude for about $35 a barrel, to rise and fall with the price of crude. Of course, anyone who thinks that the world is full of mammoth undiscovered oilfields is not likely to be impressed with the Syncrude operation.

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (57067)	10/29/2009 7:27:01 PM
From: energyplay	Respond to of 218195

Tommaso understands Canadian oil sands very well. Besides the natural gas cost, which is still dropping (I expect they paid higher prices at the start of the Q3) they have capital costs and depreciation, and some labor cost. Higher oil prices and lower NG prices will expand the gross profit. 50 years is plenty of reserves.

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (57067)	10/29/2009 8:01:44 PM
From: RJA_	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218195

>>Anybody understand this? COS has to have a certain minimum price, otherwise they loose money on each barrel sold. Last time I looked, this was around $60 (it keeps going up). Part of that was the Natural Gas component, so as this price has dropped, perhaps the break even has also dropped. However, once below the break even... COS looses money... and the break even is relatively high. There is also the unknown effect of the change in taxation of the Canadian Oil Trusts... this will have an effect on the dividend... and when I ask, COS as a policy will not tell you about future dividends. So, if your basis is cheap enough, a good stock. If not, well, all depends on price of oil, price of NG, and take of Mother Mapleleaf.