Anadarko Petroleum Raises 2014 Capex Budget By 8 Pct

Anadarko Petroleum Corp raised its 2014 capital budget by nearly 8 percent and said it would spend about 60 percent of the total on drilling more oil wells onshore in North America.

A bulk of the onshore capital will go in drilling oil and liquids-rich shale fields in the United States, including the Wattenberg field in Colorado, Eagleford and Wolfcamp fields in Texas, the company said.

Texas-based Anadarko said it expects oil production to rise by about 40,000 barrels per day in 2014.

Anadarko, along with many other U.S. oil and gas producers, has been selling off assets abroad to focus on high-growth, higher-margin shale oil drilling in North America.

Increased spending this year will drive sales volumes, excluding divestitures, by 6-7 percent to between 290-294 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE).

By that measure, Anadarko sold 274 million BOE in 2013.

Anadarko's sales volumes represent actual production volumes adjusted for changes in commodity inventories.

The company said capital investments this year are expected to be between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion, excluding investments associated with its unit Western Gas Partners LP .

Anadarko spent $7.7 billion in 2013.