ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has revealed that asset sales for 2016 delivered US$1.3bn of proceeds, with some US$800mln to be realized in its fourth quarter accounts.
Most of the money comes from the disposal of interests in Senegal and Indonesia, as well as stakes in iron ore assets in the United States.
It marks a start to a program that, according to Conoco, could see as much as US$8bn realized.
The divested assets have thus far represented production of around 27,000 barrels oil equivalent per day, though it said that its production guidance for the year remained at 1.56-1.57 million barrels per day.
As such the oil major is expecting production growth (excluding operations in Libya) will be in the range of zero to 2%.
Conoco highlighted that it paid down some US$1.25bn of debt in October, which takes its tally of repayments to US$2.2bn for the whole year.
Chief executive Ryan Lance told investors that the company continues to focus on free-cash generation which is earmarked for debt reduction, shareholder distributions and modest growth.
“Our 2016 asset disposition program success puts us in a strong position to begin implementing the differential value proposition we outlined at our analyst and investor meeting in early November,” Lance said.
He added: “We surpassed our $1 billion asset disposition target for 2016 and are confident in our ability to deliver on our planned US$5 to US$8 billion asset disposition program over the next two years, which will accelerate our value proposition.”