Exxon Mobil Subsidary To Be Acquired By Hilcorp In Cook Inlet

Hilcorp Energy is continuing its aggressive push into Alaska’s oil and gas industry.

Hilcorp Energy has snapped up a deal with Exxon Mobil’s (NYSE:XOM) subsidiary division in Alaska for the purchase of the world’s largest oil and gas major’s Cook Inlet assets located in northern Alaska. Houston-based, Hilcorp is planning to buy two offshore platforms from Exxon Mobil subsidiary, XTO Energy, in addition to a tank facility and other offices in the island of Nikiski located in the Kenai Peninsula. The new asset facilities are located at Middle Ground Shoal Gas Field, owned by XTO Energy.

The deal represents another avenue for growth for the Hilcorp in the remotest US state region. After setting foot there four years ago, the business has seen its growth by leaps and bounds, and in that process made it the largest producer of oil and gas in the region in Cook Inlet. It further flexed its muscle by acquiring some fields from BP for its North Slope oil and gas business. It also had acquired two other facilities from BP for a 50% stake, bringing the total value of the deal at $1.5 billion.

Hilcorp says that they expect the latest round of acquisition to be finished before the end of this year, most likely around the fall, subject to regulatory approval. Once that is achieved, the energy company is expected to make an offer of employment to all of its more than 30 employees who work in the Middle Ground Shoal facilities.

This is not the first transaction by Hilcorp of XTO Energy’s assets, though. It acquired the company as a whole, five years ago, as part of more than $30 billion deal, though it did not acquire the company all in one round. Sueann Guthrie, who is the media advisor for the Fort Worth-based company, says that the move is seen as part of meeting the company’s operational and financial objectives, though the contents of the deal are still confidential.

On the other hand, Kim Jordan, Exxon Mobil Alaska public affairs coordinator, believes that the transaction will not influence the company’s LNG consortium project in Alaska, a $50 billion joint venture project that will see Exxon partner with state, as well as other local companies, to tap into the North Slope oil and gas reserves. The coordinator also confirmed that the transaction would be completed later this year, probably around the last quarter of this year.

Exxon Mobil’s stock price ended the day at $82.53, a decline of more than 0.70% the previous day.

Halliburton Company Earnings Report 2QFY15

The oil digging firm has reported a much better quarter than expectations of the analysts.

Halliburton Company has successfully ended up surprising analysts and investors in the industry by a huge difference as it has reported a better second quarter of the FY15 than what was expected out of it. The oil digging company is of the biggest of its kind in the world and has proved to be carrying out a successfully progressive business following the earnings report presented recently, given the difficult time it was facing due to the oil prices which faced an all-time low in the international market.

Halliburton oil firm reported the earnings for the second fiscal quarter of 2015 before the stock market opened for the day. It was seen that the oil company managed to receive net income of around $380 million in which a decline was most evident as in the last quarter of the same year; the net income had been recorded at $418 million. The loss at that point came out to be of 9.09 percent. On the other hand, the earnings per share of the oil field services providing firm turned out to be $0.44. However, this time around, the analysts expected the EPS of the company to come around at 0.29 which showed that the oil services provider outdone itself by reported such a high earnings rate.

Even though as compared to the previous quarter, Halliburton has reported comparatively low figures, they are still much higher than what the analysts expected it to show. Furthermore, operating income was announced in the earnings conference to come to be $643 million while total revenue was noted down at $5.9 billion. This showed that a decrease of 16.9 percent was recorded as compared to the first quarter of the same year. However, it was seen that the oil digging firm carried out its business in the oil industry around 26 percent more positive results than what the other companies achieved.

It was also expected from the oil company’s future endeavors that the share price might go down from the current position as the oil prices have been experiencing a major dip for the past couple of quarters.