ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) stock rose 0.38% (As on August 8, 11:22:00 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company announced that it will sell its Anadarko Basin assets for $1.3 billion, the company said, as it sheds non-core acreage following the Marathon Oil acquisition to reduce debt and focus on higher-margin basins. The asset sale, expected to close at the beginning of the fourth quarter, pushes ConocoPhillips past its target of raising $2 billion ahead of schedule. The company raised its asset-sale goal to $5 billion by 2026, with an aim to unlock $1 billion in cost and margin gains. Houston-based ConocoPhillips, which assumed about $5.4 billion in debt as part of its $22.5 billion acquisition of Marathon Oil, has already disposed of assets worth more than $1 billion since the deal closed in November. The Marathon deal helped lift the company’s second-quarter production to 2.39 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), up 446,000 boepd from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Haynes Boone advised ConocoPhillips on the Anadarko sale to Flywheel Energy, an Oklahoma-based producer backed by Stone Ridge Energy. The production growth helped ConocoPhillips cushion the impact of lower crude prices. Brent crude averaged nearly 20% lower in the second quarter from a year earlier, as U.S. import tariffs, weak global economic signals and higher output from OPEC+ weighed on prices. Geopolitical tensions also pressured sentiment. Prices briefly rose above $80 per barrel in June after Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites, but eased to around $67 by the end of the quarter amid demand concerns and fading risk premiums. CEO Ryan Lance said the global oil market remains “choppy” in the near term despite firm prices, but added that ConocoPhillips remains bullish on natural gas amid growing global LNG demand. The company’s total average realized prices stood at $45.77 per barrel oil equivalent, 19% lower than a year earlier.

COP in the second quarter of FY25 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.42, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.38, according to data compiled by LSEG. The company had reported the adjusted revenue of $15 billion in the second quarter of FY25, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $14.91 billion.

The company said it was expecting to generate over $7 billion in incremental free cash flow by 2029. Third-quarter production is expected to be 2.33 million to 2.37 million boepd.