Oil Firms Slow Exploration to Weather Low-Price Era--Energy Journal

Low oil prices mean "it becomes less important" to replenish stockpiles, said Luca Bertelli, chief exploration officer of Eni SpA. The Italian oil producer has shifted spending in favor of squeezing more out of fields that are already producing.

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Energy companies tapping the stock market to pay down debt and keep rigs drilling amid the low oil prices have found that selling shares at ever lower prices has further diluted the stakes held by existing shareholders, Corrie Driebusch and Ryan Dezember report.

Those who bought roughly $50 million of stock that Goodrich Petroleum Corp. sold last March have been basically wiped out. Much of the money raised by oil and gas producers this year has been through deals that involve banks putting up their own capital to buy a chunk of the company's stock--below the market rate because of the risk they are taking on--before selling it to investors.