Ten months into 2017, ConocoPhillips has nonetheless shaved 10% from its capital budget for the year to $4.5 billion, but still expects 3% underlying production growth excluding asset dispositions, a top company executive said Thursday. Meanwhile, Whiting Petroleum has been seeing results of larger sand volumes raise recoveries, particularly in its Bakken Shale wells in that large North Dakota oil play. ConocoPhillips, which has chipped away at its spending ever since early 2015 when an industry downturn began and ConocoPhillips’ capex initially was set at $13.5 billion, has pushed efficiencies throughout the organization, Al Hirschberg, executive vice president of production, drilling and projects, said during a third-quarter earnings conference call. “At a high level, it reflects our continued capital discipline,” Hirshberg said. “We’ve done better than expected.” For example, not only have multiple major projects been completed, reducing capital spending on them, but the company has “resisted inflation” starting […]