Energy Business Update: Total Raises Output Guidance, New Inquiry For Chevron

Oil sands assets owned by ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) in Canada, which are valued near $5 billion, have received a joint offer from a consortium of India’s state-run energy companies. With such a purchase, the firms would be aided in the diversification of their portfolios, which are now concentrated upon conventional maturing assets. Conoco wants to divest around 50 percent of its investment in a half-dozen oil sands assets.

Don’t Miss: What is Happening to Oil?

The French oil major Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT) has increased its output growth forecast for the years from 2011 to 2015 to 3 percent from 2.5 percent, and plans between $15 billion and $20 billion in asset sales. The higher output guidance should help diffuse earlier gloom over the firm’s performance after a series of incidents in its oil and gas producing unit that lowered production.

The EPA said to be conducting a criminal inquiry of Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) subsequent to discovering that the firm had been routing pollutants around monitoring equipment at its Richmond refinery and then burning them off into the atmosphere. This investigation is unrelated to the August 6th fire that shut down the central refining unit at the 245,000 barrel per day facility.

The Philadelphia area refinery acquired by Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) is now producing jet fuel, say sources, which is within the time frame that was forecast earlier this year. Currently, the refinery processes crude oil from the North Sea and Africa, but a near-term switch to North Dakota Bakken crude should help the carrier save money.

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