Devon Energy Corporation (DVN) has agreed to sell its assets in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and Azerbaijan to BP PLC (BP) for $7.0 billion. BP will also assume Devon's leases of the Seadrill West Sirius and Transocean Deepwater Discovery drilling rigs for the duration of the contract terms.   The company also announced that Devon and BP will form a heavy oil joint venture (JV) to develop BP's Kirby oil sands leases in Alberta, Canada.   Devon’s Repositioning Plans   As previously announced, Devon is repositioning itself to concentrate on its North American onshore natural gas and oil portfolio. These sales, combined with the company’s previously announced sale of three development projects in the Gulf of Mexico to Maersk Oil for $1.3 billion, ...

Transocean Ltd (RIG) yesterday said that its newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship has commenced operations for Reliance Industries in India under a five-year drilling contract.

The drillship, Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2, is jointly owned by Transocean and Pacific Drilling Limited. It has advanced drilling capabilities in the offshore drilling space. The drillship, which can operate in water depths up to 12,000 feet and drill wells up to 35,000 feet deep, has a variable deckload of approximately 20,000 metric tons.

Transocean had placed five newbuilds into service last year, while four newbuild ultra-deepwater floaters are in various stages of construction. These are expected to commence operations in 2010 and 2011.

The commencement of the Indian drillship operations and the organically growing asset base support our view that the long-term fundamentals of Transocean remain strong.

We like Transocean for its free cash flow generation profile and plan to return cash to shareholders through the combination of a recently

...

Transocean, Inc. (RIG) – the world’s largest offshore driller – reported weak fourth quarter results, pulled down by lower rig utilization on the back of waning demand. Earnings per share, excluding one-time items, came in at $2.21, well below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.55 and the year-ago level of $2.35.   Revenue   Total quarterly revenues of $2.7 billion missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.6%. It was down 16.4% year-over-year and 3.2% sequentially, mainly attributable to stacking of rigs and reduced revenue efficiency, only partially offset by the commencement of operations of three new drillships and improvements in floater dayrates.  Transocean’s high-spec floaters contributed approximately 54.7% to total revenue, while mid-water floaters and jack-up rigs accounted for 19.7% and 18.6% of the total, respectively. The remaining revenue came from other rig activities, integrated services, and others.   Operating Statistics   During the quarter, the company’s

...

Pride International Inc. (PDE) completed the spin-off of Seahawk Drilling Inc. – a former subsidiary of Pride that owns 20 mat-supported jackup rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) – as a stock dividend to existing shareholders. For every 15 shares of Pride, stockholders would receive one share of Seahawk, besides a cash payment for fractional shares of Seahawk. Seahawk shares will start trading today under the ticker symbol of “HAWK" on the Nasdaq. The mat-supported jackup market in the GoM has been hit hard by the sharp drop in overall activity levels due to weak natural gas prices and tight credit market conditions. Since experiencing very strong demand in the 2004–2007 period, utilization levels and dayrates have fallen steadily and currently remain at depressed levels. With this spin-off, Pride has completed its multi-year restructuring and asset repositioning program that has transformed it from ...

The world may be headed for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production. The scenario may come true according to Dr. Fatih Birol, the chief energy economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA is charged with the task of assessing future global energy supplies by countries of the OECD – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Recently, the IEA conducted the first-ever assessment of the world’s major 800 oil fields, which cover three quarters of global reserves. The IEA found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked and that the rate of decline in oil production is now running at nearly twice the pace as calculated just two years ago. On top of this, there is a problem of chronic under-investment by both oil companies and oil-producing

...

Chevron Corp. (CVX) inked a five-year contract with Transocean Ltd. (RIG) for the use of a newly built ultra-deepwater drillship, Discoverer Clear Leader, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The state-of-the-art vessel is the first of two new drillships to be commissioned for Chevron. The second vessel, Discoverer Inspiration, is expected to be ready in early 2010.

Clear Leader features Transocean’s patented dual-activity drilling technology designed to enable parallel drilling operations from a single derrick that saves time and money in deepwater well construction compared with conventional rigs.

Clear Leader is capable of drilling wells in 12,000 feet of water to a total depth of 40,000 feet. It offers advanced deepwater drilling facilities and will enable Chevron to expand the search for new domestic sources of energy.

Chevron’s current oil and gas development project pipeline is among the best in the industry. The company is one of the

...

• Kraft (NYSE:KFT) posted second-quarter results 2 cents above projections at 56 cents, as revenues fell 5.9% from a year ago to $10.16 billion, off estimates of $10.37 billion. For the year, the firm issued in-line guidance of $1.93, up from its prior view of $1.88

• Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), whose results were feared likely to show a negative impact from declining consumer spending, reported a one cent better than estimated fourth quarter earnings of 80 cents a share; however, revenues of $18.66 billion were below Street estimates of $19.32 billion.  Fiscal 2010 guidance was issued of $3.65 to $3.80 a share, compared with Street projections of $3.76 a share

• Dean Foods (NYSE:DF) reported inline returns of 43 cents a share on revenues of $2.7 billion, versus estimates of $2.8 billion

• Sony (NYSE:SNE) announced plans for a new e-reader at a low price point of $199 in the US, aimed

...

* Nike (NYSE:NKE) reported a worse-than-expected decline in new orders, down 12% through November from a year ago, or 5% excluding currency adjustments. Fourth quarter earnings, however, beat expectations at 99 cents ex-items, three cents ahead of projections, as revenues fell 7% to $4.7 billion

* Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) reported better-than-expected earnings and revenues with first quarter guidance beating estimates.  The company reported fourth-quarter earnings of 46 cents ex-items, two cents ahead of estimates, as revenues fell 5.2% to $6.86 billion versus estimates of $6.47 billion. First quarter earnings estimates of 31 cents to 33 cents a share beat estimates of 30 cents

* Toyota's (NYSE:TM) new President said the firm is expected to face "two more difficult years"

* Lennar (NYSE:LEN) reported a loss of 76 cents versus a 76 cent loss a year ago, worse than estimates of a 64 cents loss as write downs increased. Revenues fell 20.9% to $892 million

...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 25, 2009 - Zacks Equity Research highlights Kroger (KR) as the Bull of the Day and Gerdau S.A. (GGB) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Exxon (XOM), Transocean (RIG) and Ingersoll Rand (IR).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Kroger (KR) reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings per share, beating our estimate by $0.04 per share. We are increasing our EPS estimates for this year and next to reflect the first quarter upside.

For fiscal year 2009, Kroger expects identical-store sales of 3% to 4% and earnings per share of $2.00 to $2.05. That said, we still believe that the company may

...

Contraction Slowing, Inflation Not ImmediateThe Fed's statement from this month's meeting is presented below, along with its previous statement from the April meeting and my interpretation and commentary interspersed."Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that the pace of economic contraction is slowing. Conditions in financial markets have generally improved in recent months. Household spending has shown further signs of stabilizing but remains constrained by ongoing job losses, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Businesses are cutting back on fixed investment and staffing but appear to be making progress in bringing inventory stocks into better alignment with sales."Although economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time, the Committee continues to anticipate that policy actions to stabilize financial markets and institutions, ...