Murphy Oil cuts 2004 E&P spending by 15% to $843M

Petroleum News

Murphy Oil plans to spend $843 million on capital projects in 2004, roughly a 15 percent decrease from 2003 levels, the company said Jan. 12.

Murphy attributed the decrease to the sale of most of its western Canadian exploration and production business and the completion of deepwater developments in the Gulf of Mexico and completion of its clean fuels project at its Meraux refinery in Louisiana.

The move positions the company “to more easily” develop its recent Malaysian deepwater discoveries, said Claiborne Deming, Murphy’s chief executive officer. “Our focus on higher growth frontier areas is reflected in the exploration program,” he said.

Murphy said it would spend about $225 million on exploration, which includes investment in its deepwater Gulf program, an extensive drilling program on blocks K and H offshore Malaysia, two wells on Block 311 in Peninsular Malaysia, and an exploratory well offshore Congo. An additional $426 million is earmarked for its Front Runner development in the Gulf, Phase II development at West Patricia in Malaysia and continued expansion of Syncrude.

Murphy said it budgeted $184 million this year for refining and marketing operations, a decrease of about 17 percent from 2003 levels.