• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 2 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 5 mins How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 10 hours If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 4 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 6 days The European Union is exceptional in its political divide. Examples are apparent in Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Belarus, Ireland, etc.
  • 23 hours Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
  • 5 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)
Norway Launches Its First Offshore Wind Auction

Norway Launches Its First Offshore Wind Auction

Norway launched early on Monday…

Murphy Oil Is Latest Firm To Sell Assets Abroad In Focus On Shale

Murphy Oil Corporation has signed a deal to sell its assets in Malaysia, becoming the latest U.S. company to exit projects abroad as it focuses on high-margin opportunities in U.S. shale.

Murphy Oil will exit Malaysia after 20 years after it signed a deal with a subsidiary of PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited to sell its two primary Malaysian subsidiaries for US$2.127 billion in cash, payable upon closing and subject to customary closing adjustments, the U.S. firm said on Thursday.

Murphy Oil will use the proceeds to return cash to shareholders through share buybacks and to cut debt, while it will be focusing primarily on the Eagle Ford shale play and on its operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

A total of US$750 million of the remaining proceeds will be “earmarked for U.S. oil-weighted opportunities through potential acquisitions and/or the funding of both deep water projects and U.S. onshore opportunities,” the company said.

“We will continue with our plans of investing in our high margin, oil-weighted Western Hemisphere opportunities, especially the Eagle Ford Shale and the Gulf of Mexico while maintaining our focused low-cost exploration program,” said Roger W. Jenkins, President and CEO.

Last month, Marathon Oil said that it would be exiting the UK North Sea as it continues to focus on high-return U.S. shale oil operations. Houston-based Marathon Oil has signed an agreement with independent UK company RockRose Energy to sell its UK businesses, which held interests in several fields in the UK part of the North Sea.

Related: U.S. On The Hunt For Iranian “Ghost Tankers”

“Today’s announcement to divest our U.K. business represents our continued commitment to portfolio management and further concentrates our portfolio on high margin, high return U.S. resource plays,” Marathon Oil chairman, president, and CEO Lee Tillman said in a statement in February.

In March last year, Marathon Oil sold its 16.33 percent non-operated interest in the Waha concessions in Libya to France’s Total for US$450 million, exiting Libya.

ADVERTISEMENT

Last month, Marathon Oil said that it would be spending US$2.4 billion in 2019, with more than 95 percent of that capital budget being allocated to its four key U.S. resource plays—the Eagle Ford, the Bakken, STACK/SCOOP in Oklahoma, and Northern Delaware in the Permian.  

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:



Join the discussion | Back to homepage



Leave a comment
  • Mitch Farney on March 21 2019 said:
    I dont see how US shale is high margin, or high returns. All it is, is a fast return of capital at a slim margin, with a fast decline, during a time some think crude is doomed to start declining in a few years... which it wont be. Big projects like Exxon's in Guyana are where it's at the next few years and will provide excellent consistent cash flow, and low cost sub sea expansions during the times of likely peaking oil. Shall focused companies will have to keep reinvesting in diminishing shale properties

Leave a comment

EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News