Chevron May Explore Crude Wells In Brazil's Frade Field

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) will likely enter an agreement with Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB) to explore prospective resources located off the coast of Brazil, per Reuters.

Oil field service giant Schlumberger is expected to assist Chevron in the drilling of six wells in the Frade field, situated in the Campos basin. According to the source, the drilling operations will likely commence by early 2019 and will continue for 18 to 24 months.

The drilling activities will help the integrated energy player boost oil production in Brazil. In the country, the 2011 oil spill incident had forced Chevron to cut crude output from 36,400 barrels per day (bpd) to 12,500 bpd. Per the source, following the spill, almost 2,400 barrels of oil was released offshore Rio de Janeiro.

San Ramon, CA-based Chevron, belonging to the Zacks Oil International Integrated industry, is one of the largest publicly traded oil and gas companies in the world, based on proved reserves. The second-largest U.S. oil producer has been benefitting from the recovery in commodity prices and solid refining profits.

Houston, TX-based Schlumberger, belonging to the Zacks Oil Field Services industry, is the largest oilfield services player with presence in every energy market across the world. Also, in all the operating business segments, the company is among the top players.

However, the lackluster crude pricing scenario, compared to the mid-2014 level, has been affecting Chevron and Schlumberger.

Over the past year, Chevron has gained 1.2% while Schlumberger lost 27.1%.

Currently, Chevron and Schlumberger carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Two better-ranked energy players are Lonestar Resources US Inc. (NASDAQ:LONE) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (NYSE:SNP) . Both the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, TX, Lonestar is an upstream energy player. The company is expected to post year-over-year earnings growth of 81.3% in 2017.

Headquartered in Beijing, China Petroleum is a leading integrated energy player. The company will likely witness year-over-year earnings growth of 59.1% in 2017.

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