Whiting Petroleum
As of late, dozens of oil and gas related stocks had a mini rally in the stock market due to slight increase in the oil & gas prices and on the back of a better outlook for recovery which is discussed latter on in this article. However, couple of such stocks that gained significantly in the past one month are Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD), Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR), Rice Energy Inc (NYSE:RICE) and EP Energy Corp (NYSE: EPE). Hence, Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL) is no different, whose stock rose as much as 127% from its lowest point of $3.53 a share on February to the current level of $8.01 per share.
The important thing is that this rally in its share price performance was despite the fact that the company
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In fact, Whiting is spending approximately two-thirds of its capital budget on completions, without drilling any new well at this play. Whiting had completed 31 operating wells at this play that recorded 30-day rate of 1,339 BOE/d, which was 22% better than the third quarter wells. At present, the company is in the process of high-grading these wells, sorting through them, figuring out which ones are the very best that should deliver considerable costs savings in 2016.
Reduction in capital expenditure and sale of non-core assets to improve its liquidity
The relentless fall in oil and gas prices have enabled the financial institutions to lower the credit lines for many oil & gas companies of late. Whiting in anticipation to this, expects its credit line to be cut by more than $1.00 billion in the loan review scheduled for May. To overcome this problem, Whiting is taking other strategic measures such as reduction in capital expenditure and sales of non-core assets that should support its liquidity going forward.
For example, the company has reduced its capital expenditure by 80% to $500 million in 2016 as compared to 2015 levels. This means that the company realized a capital savings of $600 million, as its capital expenditure was $1.1 billion in