Yesterday Hess Corporation released their first quarter 2016 update. A few years ago Hess sold off its downstream (refinery and filling station) business to Marathon Petroleum. Did you know the Hess Truck is no longer owned by Hess (see Marathon Petroleum Buys the Hess Truck! What Will We Do for Xmas?). Hess is now a 100% upstream or drilling company. They like to concentrate on oil and have a big presence in the North Dakota Bakken Shale. However, Hess still owns something like 22,000 acres of Utica Shale leases. Earlier this year the company said they would finish up drilling 5 Utica wells and then pull the plug for the rest of 2016 (see Hess Drilling 5 More Utica Wells 1Q16 Then Stopping). What does the latest update have to say? And what did Hess’ top management say on an analyst phone call yesterday about the Utica? We have it below…
