Energy stocks fall; Apache among largest decliners

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � Apache Corp. led energy stocks lower on Friday as the oil and gas company provided a weak outlook following a fourth-quarter earnings miss.

Apache late Thursday disclosed lower-than-expected production growth goals, disappointing analysts. It announced a flat $10.5 billion capital expenditure budget that allocates about a fifth of its resources to projects that will contribute to production in 2014.

Shares of Apache APA declined 4.3%, with energy stocks the sole sector in the S&P 500 SPX to post losses.

The company also said it would sell $2 billion in assets, without disclosing the properties, and will focus on repaying debt and focusing on long-term value for shareholders.

Reuters An oil refinery and storage facility in Houston. Energy stocks are weighing on the S&P 500.

Apache went on a $16 billion buying spree in recent years, snapping up assets in the U.S., U.K., Australia and other locales.

The company was involved in a well incident late Thursday, U.S. regulators said.

It prevented a blowout in one of its wells in the Gulf of Mexico and reported an underground flow of natural gas at the well, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said.

The company activated the well�s blowout preventer to keep gas from surfacing, the BSEE said on its website. The underground flow was detected through additional testing, the BSEE said.

Nonessential personnel were evacuated from the rig, located approximately 50 miles east of Venice, La., and a relief rig was en route.

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Top decliners of the day also included coal miner Peabody Energy Corp. BTU , with shares down 2.4%, and Range Resources Corp. RRC , down 1.9%.

Oil-field-services firms were giving back some of Thursday�s steep gains. Shares of Halliburton Co. HAL , which advanced more than 6% on the previous session, lost 1.4%. Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR declined 1.3%.

Goldman Sachs on Thursday upgraded Nabors to buy, an action that appeared to lift the oil-field-services subsector.

Shares of the largest U.S. integrated oil and gas companies also traded lower. Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM shares were off 0.2%, and ConocoPhillips COP shares retreated 1.6%. Chevron Corp. CVX shares declined 0.7%.

Transocean Ltd. RIG shares were off 5.1%, one of the biggest decliners of the day. Deutsche Bank and Howard Weil were among the firms to downgrade the rig operator�s stock this week. Deutsche Bank expressed concern about increased rig downtime and rising costs in cutting the stock to sell from hold.

A New Orleans judge on Thursday approved Transocean�s $400 million criminal settlement with the U.S. government over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill.

The company is still on the hook for a $1 billion settlement, yet to be approved, and going through more legal proceedings. Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded in April 2010, killing 11 workers and causing the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Among the few stocks in the black on Friday, Murphy Oil Corp. MUR advanced 1.7%. Refiner Valero Energy Corp. VLO added 0.1%.

The SPDR Energy Select Sector XLE , an exchange-traded fund focused on energy stocks, declined 1.2%. Crude-oil futures were lower, with the March contract CLH3 off 1.5% at $95.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.