On the Call: ConocoPhillips CFO Cornelius

By The Associated Press

posted: 29 DAYS 4 HOURS AGO

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-ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, has announced plans to sell assets worth at least $10 billion to cut debt and shore up its balance sheet.

During a conference call with analysts, Sig Cornelius, ConocoPhillips' senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer, discussed possible uses for the proceeds should they exceed $10 billion.

QUESTION: Assets that ConocoPhillips is marketing are well in excess of $10 billion in value, and that could take the company beyond the pay down of debt. Would the company be interested in buying back shares?

ANSWER: "We have a list of assets that is quite exhaustive that goes quite a bit more than $10 billion. ... If the market gets much, much stronger — meaning oil prices, crack spreads or gas prices — well, you may see us increasing our capital a couple of hundred million dollars or so, and those would make sense because their quick drilling opportunities are all that we would do."

"But as we bring the debt down and reach our objectives, then what do we do with our cash flow? Well, we said we wanted to increase our dividends annually. So then after we have satisfied our capital spending say a little bit more than $11 billion, we are certainly reaching and getting our debt down, raising our dividends, and we will consider a share repurchase."

2009-10-28 16:22:48