Replies to post #7972 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

HES sells 74K non-oily Utica acres for $924M, continuing its program of divesting non-core assets:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hess-corporation-announces-sale-utica-143900912.html

HES retains a 42K acres in the Utica shale and will spend $550M in Utica-related 2014 cap-ex, as noted in #msg-96330377.

The buyer for the non-oily Utica acreage in today’s deal hasn’t been disclosed. Any guesses?

[DewDiligence]

HES reduces planned 2015 cap-ex by 16% (to $4.7B from $5.6B in 2014), which is a more modest cut than many investors probably expected:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hess-corporation-announces-2015-capital-221800852.html

In the all-important Bakken shale, HES is reducing 2015 cap-ex by 18% (to $1.8B from $2.2B in 2014) and plans to complete 12% fewer wells (210 in 2015 vs 238 in 2014). Impressively, HES plans to achieve the 12% reduction in completed Bakken wells while cutting the average number of Bakken rigs in service by 44% (from 17 to 9.5).

p.s. HES reports 4Q14 results on Wednesday before the open.