The operator is focused on modest organic growth and plans to cut capex by nearly $600 million versus year while lowering operating costs by $400 million.
Ryan Lance’s response was crystal clear.
Asked a few days after Devon Energy said it is paying more than $20 billion for Coterra Energy, the chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips, Houston, was asked if there’s a role for his team in a wave of oil-and-gas sector consolidation that was worth about $65 billion in 2025.
“We’ve done our heavy lifting on the M&A side,” Lance said on a Feb. 5 conference call discussing Conoco’s fourth-quarter results and 2026 outlook. “I’ve never seen the portfolio in better shape and [there are] really no strategic gaps that we can identify […] I can see the rationale for some of the M&A activity and in terms of capturing the synergy. But we’ve been there, done that.”
Most recently, ConocoPhillips acquired Marathon Oil in late 2024 for $16.5 billion (plus the assumption of $4.6 billion in debt) to bolster its holdings in the Delaware, Eagle Ford, and Bakken basins. Lance and his team completed the integration of Marathon last year and booked more than $1 billion in annualized synergies.
While reporting fourth-quarter earnings of more than $1.4 billion of net profits on total revenues of $14.2 billion, executives pointed out that the former Marathon assets have contributed to growing their Lower 48 reserves to more than 2 decades worth of production.
During the fourth quarter, total production in the Lower 48—which accounted for 60% of ConocoPhillips’ total segment earnings over the past 2 years—totaled nearly 1.44 MMobe/d versus 1.31 MMboe/d in late 2024. ConocoPhillips’ overall output during the fourth quarter was 2.32 MMboe/d versus 2.18 MMboe/d in the same period of the previous year.
Executives are forecasting that ConocoPhillips’ total production will rise only slightly this year to 2.33-2.36 MMboe/d. The financial focus will be on efficiency. Lance and chief financial officer Andy O’Brien said the company’s 2026 capital spending budget is about $12 billion, a reduction of nearly $600 million from 2025, while adjusted operating costs will be about $10.2 billion, $400 million less than last year.
Shares of ConocoPhillips (Ticker: COP) were down more than 2% to roughly $104.80 in afternoon trading Feb. 5. They are, however, still up more than 10% over the past 6 months, a move that has increased the company’s market capitalization to more than $130 billion.