(Adds Occidental Petroleum conference call details)
By Anna Driver and Ernest Scheyder
HOUSTON/WILLISTON, N.D., Jan 29 (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum Corp on Thursdayslashed exploration spending plans for this year, as the third-and fourth-largest U.S. oil companies attempt to cope with asteep slide in crude prices.
The cuts follow similar steps by rival Hess Corp earlier this week while Royal Dutch Shell, Europe'slargest oil company, said on Thursday it would reduce itsspending the next three years by $15 billion.
Rising supplies of oil, from sources including NorthAmerican shale basins, and weakening demand have flooded globalmarkets with crude, sending prices plummeting almost 60 percentsince June. On Thursday, crude traded in New York at $43.80 perbarrel, much lower than many oil and gas projects require tomake money.
In response to the price collapse, oil and gas companieshave made drastic cuts to budgets, idled drilling rigs and insome cases, cut jobs.
For a factbox on capex cuts, click on:
Conoco, which said in December it would cut 2015 spending by20 percent to $13.5 billion, now expects spending to be scaledback by a further 15 percent to $11.5 billion. Occidental saidit would slash its capital budget by 33 percent to $5.8 billionthis year.
"There's a lot of debate right now about the duration of thecurrent low oil prices. But we're assuming that they will staylow for 2015 and we're taking decisive actions accordingly,"Ryan Lance, Conoco's CEO, said on a conference call.
U.S. PRODUCTION DIP?
Conoco's second trimming of its 2015 capex budget raised thespecter that others in the industry could further reduce theirown spending, potentially reinforcing a dip in U.S. productionthat the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts tooccur this summer.
That would mark a sharp turnabout for the U.S. oil industry,which has enjoyed five years of blistering output growth thanksto the shale oil boom.
Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil producer,has yet to unveil 2015 spending and may do so on Friday when itreports quarterly results.
Conoco said it would defer drilling some U.S. onshoreexploration programs and delay spending on some major projects.Occidental said it will pull back spending in North Dakota'sBakken Shale and in Bahrain.
"We think it is imprudent to accelerate some of theseopportunities in the current low product price environment,"Occidental Chief Executive Stephen Chazen told investors.
Analysts at Houston-based investment bank Simmons & Co saidConoco's plan to further reduce capital spending is the rightmove to make, in this "challenging environment."
Neither Conoco nor Occidental are running out of cash,despite the low prices, though. Indeed, Occidental last quarterspent $1.3 billion on 100,000 acres in the Permian, a prolificshale formation in Texas. Chazen said the deal was to betterconnect existing acreage and boost drilling efficiencies.
Both companies also expect oil and gas output to rise thisyear, although possibly at a slower rate. Conoco now expects oiland gas output to grow 2 percent to 3 percent. That compareswith a previous forecast for growth of 3 percent.
Occidental said its production will ramp up 6 percent to 10percent, helped by wells in the Permian Basin.
Excluding one-time items, both companies reported earningsthat topped analyst expectations. Conoco was helped bybetter-than-expected results in its Asia Pacific and Middle Eastsegment, while Occidental's adjusted earnings were lifted by itschemicals business.
On a net basis, both companies reported a quarterly loss.
Conoco had a fourth-quarter loss of $39 million, or 3 centsper share, compared with a profit of $2.5 billion, or $2.00 aper share. One time-items including the termination of theFreeport LNG agreement.
Occidental reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $3.41billion, or $4.41 per share. It earned an income of $1.6billion, or $2.04 a share, a year earlier.
In afternoon trading Thursday, shares of Conoco fell about 1percent to $61.90 per share, while shares of Oxy rose 1 percentto $77.30. (Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Williston, NorthDakota; Editing by Terry Wade, Bernadette Baum and ChristianPlumb)
