Top Oil Companies To Buy For 2015

Top Oil Companies To Buy For 2015: Pioneer Natural Resources Co (PXD)

Pioneer Natural Resources Company (Pioneer),incorporated on April 4, 1997, is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States and South Africa. Pioneer is a holding company whose assets consist of direct and indirect ownership interests in, and whose business is conducted substantially through, its subsidiaries. The Company sells homogenous oil, natural gas liquid (NGL) and gas units. The Company provides administrative, financial, legal and management support to United States and South Africa subsidiaries that explore for, develop and produce proved reserves. The Companys continuing operations are principally located in the United States in the states of Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Alaska. During February 2011, the Company completed the sale of Pioneer Natural Resources Tunisia Ltd. and Pioneer Natural Resources Anaguid Ltd. In April 2012, it acquired Carmeuse Industrial Sands (CIS). In August 2012, the Company sold it s South Africa business to The Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (SOC) Ltd. (PetroSA). Effective December 17, 2013, Pioneer Natural Resources Company and Pioneer Southwest Energy Partners L.P announced the completion of the merger of Pioneer Southwest Energy Partners L.P with a wholly owned subsidiary of Pioneer Natural Resources Company, with Pioneer Southwest Energy Partners L.P surviving the merger as an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Pioneer Natural Resources Company.

The Company has 15 owned drilling rigs operating in the Spraberry field, and as of December 31, 2011, had Company-owned fracture stimulation fleets totaling 250,000 horsepower supporting drilling operations in the Spraberry, Eagle Ford Shale and Barnett Shale Combo areas. The Company also owns other field service equipment, including pulling units, fracture stimulation tanks, water transport trucks, hot oilers, blowout preventers, construction equipment a! nd fishing tools. T he Company owns a 52.4% limited partner interest and a 0.1% general partner interest in Pioneer Southwest Energy Partners L.P. and its subsidiaries (Pioneer Southwest). The Companys proved reserves totaled 1,063 million barrel of oil equivalent at December 31, 2011. Approximately 83% of the Companys proved reserves at December 31, 2011 are located in the Spraberry field in the Permian Basin area, the Hugoton and West Panhandle fields in the Mid-Continent area and the Raton field in the Rocky Mountains area.

Permian Basin

The Spraberry field encompasses eight counties in West Texas. The field is approximately 150 miles long and 75 miles wide at its widest point. The oil produced is West Texas Intermediate Sweet, and the gas produced is casinghead gas with an average energy content of 1,400 British thermal unit. The oil and gas are produced primarily from four formations, the upper and lower Spraberry, the Dean and the Wolfcamp, at depths rangin g from 6,700 feet to 11,300 feet. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company drilled 706 wells in the Spraberry field and its total acreage position approximated 820,000 gross acres (691,000 net acres). The Company has 44 rigs operating, of which 41 are drilling vertical wells and three are drilling horizontal wells. The Company completed its second horizontal well in the Upper/Middle Wolfcamp Shale in Upton County, Texas with a 30-stage fracture stimulation in a 5,800-foot lateral section. The Company is focusing its horizontal efforts on more than 200,000 acres in the southern part of the field to hold acreage. The Company continues to test down spacing in the Spraberry field from 40 acres to 20 acres. Sixteen 20-acre wells were drilled in 2011, with 10 of these wells having been placed on production. These 20-acre wells were drilled to the Lower Wolfcamp interval, with a few deepened to the Strawn interval.

Mid-Continent

The Hugoton fie ld in southwest Kansas is a producing gas! fields i! n the continental United States. The gas is produced from the Chase and Council Grove formations at depths ranging from 2,700 feet to 3,000 feet. The Companys Hugoton properties are located on approximately 284,000 gross acres (245,000 net acres), covering approximately 400 square miles. The Company has working interests in approximately 1,220 wells in the Hugoton field, approximately 1,000 of which it operates. The Company operates substantially all of the gathering and processing facilities, including the Satanta plant, which processes the production from the Hugoton field. In January 2011, the Company sold a 49% interest in the Satanta plant to an unaffiliated third party for the third partys commitment to dedicate gas volumes to the Satanta plant. The Company is also exploring opportunities to process other gas production in the Hugoton area at the Satanta plant. By maintaining operatorship of the gathering and proc essing facilities, the Company is able to control the production, gathering, processing and sale of its Hugoton field gas and NGL production.

The West Panhandle properties are located in the panhandle region of Texas. These reserves are attributable to the Red Cave, Brown Dolomite, Granite Wash and fractured Granite formations at depths no greater than 3,500 feet. The Companys gas has an average energy content of 1,365 British thermal unit and is produced from approximately 680 wells on more than 259,000 gross acres (252,000 net acres) covering over 375 square miles. The Company controls 100% of the wells, production equipment, gathering system and the Fain gas processing plant for the field.

Raton

The Raton Basin properties are located in the southeast portion of Colorado. The Company owns approximately 227,000 gross acres (201,000 net acres) in the center of the Raton Basin and produces CBM gas from the coal seams in the Vermejo an d Raton formations from approximately 2,300 wells. The Company owns the majority of the well servicing and fracture! stimulat! ion equipment that it utilizes in the Raton field, allowing it to control costs and insure availability.

South Texas Eagle Ford Shale and Edwards

The Companys drilling activities in the South Texas area during 2011 were primarily focused on delineation and development of Pioneers substantial acreage position in the Eagle Ford Shale play. The Company drilled 94 horizontal Eagle Ford Shale wells during 2011, with average lateral lengths of approximately 5,500 feet and 13-stage fracture stimulations. EFS Midstream LLC (EFS Midstream) is obligated to construct midstream assets in the Eagle Ford Shale area. Eight of the 12 planned central gathering plants (CGPs) were completed as of December 31, 2011.

Barnett Shale

During 2011, the Company continued to increase its acreage position in the liquid-rich Barnett Shale Combo area in North Texas. In total, the Company has accumulated approximately 92,000 gross acres in the liquid-rich area of the field and has acquired approximately 340 square miles of three dimensional (3-D) seismic covering its acreage. The Companys total lease holdings in the Barnett Shale play now approximate 142,000 gross acres (108,000 net acres). During 2011, the Company had two drilling rigs operating and drilled 44 Barnett Shale Combo wells. The Company also commenced operating a Company-owned fracture stimulation fleet in the area during the second quarter of 2011.

Alaska

The Company owns a 70% working interest and is the operator of the Oooguruk development project. The Company has drilled 12 production wells and eight injection wells of the estimated 17 production and 16 injection wells planned to develop this project.

International

During 2011, the Companys international operations were loc ated in Tunisia and offshore South Africa. During February 2011, the Company completed the sale of the Companys share holdings in Pioneer Tunisia to an unaffiliated third party.

Advisor! s' Opinio! n:

• [By Robert Rapier]

  There are numerous drillers making major investments in the Permian Basin. The list is long, but it includes Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN), Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD), Concho Resources (NYSE: CXO), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and Apache (NYSE: APA).

• [By Igor Greenwald]

  With the rate of increase in concentrate production probably peaking and additional processing capacity only starting to come online, it’s no surprise the Commerce Department advised Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD) and Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) that they could export condensate after minimal field distillation.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  That potential has a company like Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD  ) seeing a future that includes drilling more than 40,000 wells to capture over 9 billion barrels of potential oil equivalent production. That's $900 billion of potential oil in the ground for this $22 billion company. While it will cost a lot of money to get the oil out of the ground, it still makes for a very compelling investment opportunity.

• [By Jim Jubak]

  Having done about all it could to increase US crude exports, by granting export licenses to Canada (permitted under the current system), I think the Obama administration is likely to move to grant new export licenses to countries other than Canada in 2014. That policy change would turn US oil producers into a rare bright spot in an energy sector that is looking at stable or falling global oil prices in 2014. Stocks I'd take a look at are Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), Concho Resources (CXO) and Targa Resources Partners (NGLS). Pioneer Natural Resources is a member of my Jubak Picks 50 long-term portfolio. Targa Resources Partners is a member of my Jubak's Picks 12-18 month portfolio

source from Top Stocks To Buy Fo! r 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/top-oil-companies-to-buy-for-2015-2.html