Hess To Spend $2.1 On Unconventional Resources In 2015

Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) announced a 2015 capital and exploratory budget of $4.7 billion, a 16% reduction from its 2014 actual spend of $5.6 billion.

Of this, $2.1 billion (45%) is budgeted for unconventional shale resources, $1.2 billion (26%) for production, $1.0 billion (21%) for developments and $0.4 billion (8%) for exploration.

CEO John Hess said: “Our company is well positioned to manage through the current price environment, with a strong balance sheet and resilient portfolio. Our 2015 budget reflects a disciplined approach to maintaining our financial strength and flexibility while preserving our long term growth options.”

Unconventionals - $2.1 billion:

• $1.8 billion for the development of the Bakken Shale in North Dakota. Approximately $1.45 billion is dedicated to drilling and completion activities, pad level facilities and low pressure gathering lines; $350 million is planned for major infrastructure projects;
• $290 million for drilling 20-25 wells in the core of the wet gas window of the Utica Shale play in Ohio.

Production - $1.2 billion:

• $300 million to drill four production wells and begin one water injection well at the South Arne Field (Hess 62% and operator) in Denmark, and to bring three production wells online and drill one new well at the Valhall Field in Norway (Hess 64%, BP operator);
• $250 million to complete drilling of one production well and one water injection well, and for continued facilities work at the Tubular Bells Field (Hess 57.1% and operator) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico;
• $220 million to drill two production wells (Hess 85% and operator) in Equatorial Guinea;
• $200 million to complete drilling of production, appraisal and water injection wells at the Shenzi Field (Hess 28%, BHP operator) and for small-scale well-related activity elsewhere in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico;
• $175 million to drill 8-10 wells and progress the ongoing Booster Compression project in the Joint Development Area (Hess 50%) in the Gulf of Thailand.

Developments - $1.0 billion:

• $600 million to install three wellhead platform jackets, progress fabrication and commence Phase 1 drilling for the North Malay Basin full field development project (Hess 50% and operator) in Malaysia;
• $300 million to progress hull and topsides fabrication and commence drilling at the Stampede Field (Hess 25% and operator) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

Exploration - $0.4 billion:

• Drill the Sicily well (Hess 25% , Chevron operator) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico;
• Drill the Liza well (Hess 30%, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited operator) in offshore Guyana;
• Complete drilling operations in the Dinarta block (Hess 80% and operator) in Kurdistan

The company is based in New York.