During the next eight days, independent U.S. oil explorers are expected to report 2015 losses totaling almost $14 billion, the result of the steepest price collapse in a generation. Hess Corp. kicks off earnings season for the companies on Wednesday with what analysts predict will be an annual loss of $1.6 billion, its worst performance in at least 28 years. It will be followed by peers including Murphy Oil Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which also have been squeezed by a crude drop of more than 70 percent since June 2014. “It’s not going to be pretty,” said Carl Larry, head of oil and gas for Frost & Sullivan LP in Houston. Investors have punished oil and gas explorers, wiping out more than $300 billion in market value for the companies in the Bloomberg Intelligence North America Independent E&Ps Valuation Peer Group in the past year. Distressed debt exchanges […]