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CONOCOPHILLIPS TO SELL CHUNK OF CANADIAN OIL-SANDS ASSETS FOR $13.3 BILLION

ConocoPhillips is planning to offload some of its Canadian oil-sands assets to Cenovus Energy Inc., writes Maria Armental.

ConocoPhillips would be selling assets including a majority of its western Canada Deep Basin gas portfolio in a $13.3 billion cash-and-stock deal.

ConocoPhillips will use the proceeds from the sale to pay down debt and significantly increase stock buybacks. The firm plans to use the cash proceeds to cut debt to about $20 billion this year and about $15 billion by 2019. As of last year, ConocoPhillips’s debt stood at more than $27 billion.

“If the sale goes through, ConocoPhillips, one of the largest U.S. shale producers, would still keep a presence in Canada with a 50% stake in the Surmont oil sands-project, which it runs and where it targets a 50% production increase, and full ownership in the Blueberry-Montney acreage position,” the Journal reports.

ConocoPhillips is one of several firms that have recently reduced their footprint in Canada’s oil sands region because oil sands are among the world’s most expensive and challenging types of petroleum to produce.

SAUDI ARAMCO PLANS TO RAISE $2 BILLION WITH FIRST BOND OFFERING

State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., plans to issue its first bond to raise $2 billion, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Saudi Aramco, as the firm is also known, is set to issue a 7.5 billion riyal-denominated sukuk bond that is compliant with Islamic law but can be purchased by foreigners.

“A sukuk is a bondlike instrument designed for Islamic investors to be non-interest-bearing. Issuance of sukuk bonds has grown strongly in recent years to meet investment demands of Islamic investors, mainly from the Gulf countries and Asia,” the Journal reports.

Late last year, Saudi Arabia issued its first global bond in a $17.5 billion debt sale amid an effort to shore up the kingdoms finances that have been hurt by the downturn in oil.

By contrast, Saudi Aramco chose to sell its first Islamic bond in the local currency rather than in dollars, a sign that the debt offering is aimed primarily at locals.

Saudi Arabia is also set to move ahead with an initial public offering of its state-owned energy colossus in 2018. Saudi Aramco, the world’s single largest crude producer, is expected to raise tens of billions of dollars through the listing of 5% of its shares.

EU CALLS TRUMP’S COAL MOVE A ‘GLOBAL DISASTER’ AS NATIONS RENEW CLIMATE VOWS

President Donald Trump’s decision to reverse climate-change policies continued to draw criticism from European officials while their Asian counterparts vowed to continue their drive toward cleaner fuels.

“Mr. Trump, citing the need to revive the U.S. coal industry and ease the regulatory burden, began on Tuesday ​to repeal the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan of stricter carbon-dioxide limits on utilities. The change leaves an opening for China and other countries to seize leadership in the global effort to curb the rise in temperatures, as set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement,” the Journal reports.

“I think it’s a disaster, not only for the U.S., but a global disaster,”said Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Union’s executive branch.
A government spokesman for China, the biggest emitter of climate-changing gases, said the country won’t change its commitment to the Paris accord.

“We still advocate that all sides should move with the times, grasp opportunities, fulfill their promises and earnestly take positive action to jointly promote implementation of [the Paris] agreement,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.

MARKETS

Oil prices eased on Thursday, trimming gains made the previous session on bullish weekly U.S. data which indicated that record crude stocks may soon start falling.

That bounce, which allowed futures to settle at three-week highs overnight, was stoked by the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s data showing a larger-than-expected decline in gasoline and distillate supplies as well as refiners processing oil at a higher rate.

Prices then slipped on Thursday under the weight of a firmer dollar.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.5% to $52.29 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading down 0.2% at $49.39 a barrel. Read our latest market report at wsj.com.

Professor Kenneth Rogoff, the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics at Harvard University, says the Chinese economy is the biggest risk to the global economy in 2015.

In an interview at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr. Rogoff discusses the challenges facing the world economy with The Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief, Gerry Baker.

In terms of the U.S., growth looks broad-based and strong, and Prof Rogoff expects that to continue, and predicts employment to improve and wages to rise. That could have a beneficial effect on other countries too. But if Europe sinks, and China dives, the U.S. will feel the pain too. More in the video.