Yahoo Finance ConocoPhillips (COP) Commences Alaska's Nuna Oilfield Project
ConocoPhillips COP will start developing its Nuna field project in Alaska, which is expected to add up to 20,000 barrels per day of oil from the site.
The company cited that funding had been approved for developing the Nuna project.
In 2019, ConocoPhillips acquired the Nuna acreage from Dallas-based Caelus, which had already constructed the gravel road and pad for the drill site.
The project’s construction activities will commence this year at ConocoPhillips’ 3T drill site at its Kuparuk River Unit (“KRU”). Drill site 3T is the 49th drill site developed within the KRU. It will continue in 2024 with pipeline and on-pad construction. The company expects drilling activities to start in late 2024, with the first oil anticipated by early 2025.
The Nuna project will add 29 development wells, on-pad infrastructure and pipelines, which will connect to existing Kuparak processing facilities. The additional drilling opportunities that have been discovered at Nuna will likely increase oil production at Kuparuk.
ConocoPhillips is the largest crude oil producer in Alaska. The company is the largest owner of exploration leases, with 1.2 million net undeveloped acres as of 2022. It has major ownership interests in two of North America’s largest legacy conventional oil fields — Kuparuk and Prudhoe Bay. Both are situated on Alaska’s North Slope.
ConocoPhillips will continue investing about $1 billion per year in its Alaska projects. In Kuparuk, the company is planning to proceed with Coyote and Narwhal, while undertaking additional West Sak development.
Headquartered in Houston, TX, ConocoPhillips is primarily involved in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. Through 2022, the upstream energy player produced 1,738 thousand barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day, comprising more than 51.7% oil.
ConocoPhillips currently carries a Zack Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked players in the energy space are Sunoco LP SUN and Enterprise Products Partners LP EPD, each currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Eni SPA E, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Sunoco reported first-quarter 2023 earnings of $1.41 per unit, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.21. Better-than-expected quarterly earnings were primarily driven by higher contributions from the Fuel Distribution and Marketing segment.
For 2023, SUN revised its adjusted EBITDA guidance upward to $865-$915 million from the previously mentioned $850-$900 million.
Enterprise Products reported first-quarter 2023 adjusted earnings per limited partner unit of 64 cents, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 62 cents. This was primarily due to higher contributions from the Natural Gas Pipelines & Services business.
In the first quarter, Enterprise Products generated an adjusted free cash flow of $1,347 million against a negative free cash flow of $1,618 million in the year-ago quarter. EPD recorded a distributable cash flow of $863 million in the same time frame.
Eni reported first-quarter adjusted earnings from continuing operations of $1.85 per American Depository Receipt, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.39. Better-than-expected quarterly earnings resulted from an increase in refinery throughput volumes.
For 2023, Eni reiterated its total hydrocarbon production guidance of 1.63-1.67 MBoe/d, indicating an increase from the 1.61 MBoe/d reported in 2022. The company expects to discover exploration resources of 700 MBoe this year.
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