“You also need a low cost structure and a strong balance sheet for a strong credit rating with good access to the debt markets,” Lance said. “A company like ours also needs to be able to react quickly to developments.”

A spokesman for the US oil and gas producer confirmed it had sold its 50 per cent stake in the venture, which is focused on the far north-west of Russia. Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, also sold its stake in the asset last week, in a deal that valued the business at about $150m-$200m, according to one person familiar with the matter.

The company also expects to close $2.3 billion of noncore asset sales, including $600 million from transactions that closed through the first three quarters of 2015. The remaining $1.7 billion represents deals with agreements in place that are expected to close in fourth-quarter 2015 or first-quarter 2016.

The world’s six largest publicly traded oil producers have more than a half-trillion dollars in stock and cash to snap up rival explorers.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) reported a third-quarter 2015 net loss of $1.1 billion, or ($0.87) per share, compared with third-quarter 2014 earnings of $2.7 billion, or $2.17 per share. Excluding special items, third-quarter 2015 adjusted earnings were a net loss of $466 million, or ($0.38) per share, compared with third-quarter 2014 adjusted earnings of $1.6 billion, or $1.29 per share. Special items for the current quarter related primarily to the termination of a rig contract for a Gulf of Mexico deepwater drillship, non-cash impairments, restructuring costs and pension settlement expense.

ConocoPhillips said Tuesday that it plans to cut about 10 percent of its global workforce.

U.S. oil and gas company ConocoPhillips is reviewing its portfolio in Indonesia and may soon seek buyers for a stake in a production sharing block it operates in the Natuna Sea, company and government sources said.

ConocoPhillips announced that is was withdrawing from shale gas exploration in Poland.

More than $100bn of spending on new projects by the world’s energy companies has been slowed, postponed or axed following the oil price plunge, evidence of the drastic industry action that will curb output in coming years.

ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil producer, is exploring the sale of some its North Sea assets in Norway as it seeks to divest overseas operations, two people with knowledge of the matter said.