Halliburton posts $18 million 1Q loss

Halliburton says it lost $18 million in the first quarter, pulled down by $637 million in charges related to its role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The oil services company's loss amounted to 2 cents per share. That compares with net income of $627 million, or 68 cents per share, a year earlier.

Halliburton, which is in talks to settle claims against it related to the oil spill, said that excluding the charges it posted adjusted earnings of 67 cents per share. That beat the 57 cents that analysts expected.

The Houston company, which provides a variety of services for the petroleum industry, is benefiting from a boom in U.S. oil production, which is at the highest level in more than two decades. At the same time, Halliburton's natural gas business has slowed as drillers slowed production due to falling prices for the fuel.

Halliburton provided cementing services for BP PLC on the failed Macondo well in 2010. The two sides continue to spar over responsibility for the disaster. BP acknowledges it made mistakes that led to the blowout, but the company denies it was grossly negligent and argues Halliburton also must shoulder blame for the catastrophe. Halliburton maintains that BP, as the well's owner, is responsible for the blowout that created the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Total announces significant oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico

Total has announced a significant oil discovery at its North Platte prospect on Garden Banks Block 959 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The discovery well encountered several hundred feet of net oil pay in Lower Tertiary sands which included several high-quality intervals.
Total estimates this discovery can have a potential of several hundred million barrels of oil. Further appraisal will be needed to confirm its size and commerciality.
Total is in a strategic alliance with Cobalt International Energy to explore for oil in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The North Platte discovery is the first Lower Tertiary Wilcox formation well drilled by the Alliance. The results of the well confirm the northern extension of the Wilcox formation and the presence of liquid hydrocarbons. Therefore, this validates the major potential of this new exploration area of the Gulf of Mexico in which Total holds a substantial acreage position with several follow-on prospects.
North Platte is located in a water depth of approximately 4,400 feet (1,340 m) and was drilled to a total depth of approximately 34,500 feet (10,520 m).

Total holds a 40% interest in the North Platte discovery along with Cobalt (60%, operator).

BP desperate to raise money through asset sale

BP is in talks to sell some of its Gulf of Mexico oil fields to Plains Exploration & Production Company for roughly $7bn looks to raise money to pay for damages from the 2010 oil spill.

The amount BP will have to pay in damages for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is still in dispute. But last month the United States Justice Department accused the company of gross negligence and willful misconduct over the spill, a position that could lead to nearly $21bn in civil damages if a federal judge agrees.

BP said in May that it was looking to sell a number of mature fields in the Gulf of Mexico, including its positions in the Marlin, Horn Mountain, Holstein, Ram Powell, and Diana Hoover fields.

A deal would be transformational for Houston-based independent oil explorer and producer, Plains, which had a market capitalization of $5.2bn. The company already has assets in the Gulf, as well as in California, Texas, Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Like many other independent US oil and gas companies, Plains has been working to build up its oil assets, as the price for US natural gas has been in a prolonged slump. It had previously estimated that about 57 to 60 per cent of its 2012 production would be oil.

BP sells US refinery for $2.5 billion

British energy group BP said that it had agreed to sell its Carson refinery in California to US peer Tesoro Corporation for $2.5 billion. The sale is part of BP's previously-announced plans to sell $38 billion of assets by the end of 2013 to help pay the clean-up bill and compensation costs from the devastating 2010 US Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The troubled energy major has agreed to sell $26.5 billion of assets since the start of 2010, including the latest deal. BP said that the Carson sale would allow it to focus its investment and operations on the British group's three refineries in the northern United States. The group had announced in February 2011 that it would sell off two major US refineries -- including Carson -- as part of a restructuring to shift its focus away from the United States and to meet its compensation costs. It also intends to offload the Texas City facility which suffered a deadly 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers and sparked safety concerns across its US operations.