The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

HES is off sharply today on what, objectively, was not an awful quarter or an awful outlook for the rest of 2012. Highlights:

• 2012 full-year Bakken production is now expected to slightly miss the prior 60K boe/d target. (Due to the prominence of the Bakken, this is probably main reason for today’s sell-off.) Current Bakken production is 47K boe/d.

• The downstream business suffered from the unusually warm winter in the Northeastern US, where HES does all of its marketing.

• On the positive side, HES is again lifting oil from Libya (as expected from #msg-74723520).

All told, what's going on right now with HES’ share price is mostly just noise, IMO. HES is a well-run company with desirable and well-diversified hydrocarbon assets; I think there's a pretty high chance that it will be acquired at a nice premium within the next 5 yrs. Contrary opinions welcome!