Anadarko To Cut Capex Spending By 50%

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced plans on Tuesday to cut its capital expenditures by nearly 50% in 2016 and monetize up to $3 billion in assets. The company's onshore activities will be reduced the most, by almost $2.5 billion in capex year-over-year. Those plans include reducing its onshore rig count by 80% to five operated rigs from an average of 25 in 2015. In the Gulf of Mexico, the company will shift its focus to tieback oil opportunities, which it says are more capital-efficient and offer returns of more than 30% today's strip prices. In international markets, Anadarko will focus efforts to advance its Paon oil discovery offshore Cote d'Ivoire to potential development. Its shares, while inactive in premarket trade, are down more than 37% over the last three months and 55% over the last year, vastly underperforming the S&P 500.