Corporate News

WPX Energy (NYSE: WPX) is forecasting up to $1.2 billion in capital spending for 2012 and full-year EBITDAX of approximately $1.2 billion. A definition of EBITDAX is included at the end of this news release.

Prior to the decline in natural gas prices in 2012, Williams (NYSE: WMB) had originally forecasted a capital budget of $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion and double-digit production growth for WPX Energy.

WPX plans to add a sixth rig in the Bakken Shale at mid-year and deploy an average of five rigs in the Piceance Basin and three rigs in the Marcellus Shale in 2012. This represents a reduction of six rigs in the Piceance and four rigs in the Marcellus vs. previous plans, which equates to a more than 40 percent decrease in the company’s rig count in these basins.

Capital spending is expected to yield a 50-60 percent increase in domestic oil production and a 10-12 percent increase in NGL production.

Domestic natural gas production is expected to remain flat compared with 2011. This is based on $400 million in capital spending reductions for natural gas areas in 2012 vs. the projected 2012 capital budget from late 2011.

Under WPX’s updated capital plan, overall production for all products is expected to grow at 4 percent in 2012 on an Mcf equivalent basis, with volumes for oil and NGL converted to natural gas equivalence using a 6-to-1 ratio. In 2011, WPX averaged 1,408 MMcfe per day.

WPX is forecasting full-year EBITDAX of approximately $1.2 billion for 2012. This assumes the impact of the company’s existing hedges (detailed below) and a $3 NYMEX natural gas price.

At a $3.50 natural gas price, EBITDAX would be approximately $1.3 billion for 2012. At a $4.00 natural gas price, EBITDAX would be approximately $1.4 billion. All three EBITDAX scenarios assume a $99 per barrel oil price. A $1 change in the price of oil equates to a $5 million impact to EBITDAX.

American Airlines -- of AMR Corp (OTC: AAMRQ) -- reported a January load factor of 78.5 percent, an increase of 2.7 points versus the same period last year. Traffic increased 1.4 percent, while capacity was lower by 2.1 percent year-over-year.

International traffic increased 5.0 percent relative to last year as capacity increased 1.2 percent, resulting in an increase in international load factor of 2.9 points versus January last year. Domestic load factor was 78.0 percent, an increase of 2.6 points year-over-year. Domestic capacity and traffic were 4.4 percent and 1.1 percent lower year-over-year respectively.

Earlier in the session, EMC (NYSE: EMC) announced the release of VFCache, "a new hardware and software solution leveraging PCIe Flash technology and intelligent caching software that dramatically increases throughput and reduces latency."

The most direct competitor that EMC appears to be aiming for is Fusion-IO (NYSE: FIO). Fusion-IO CEO David Flynn, however, has been making the rounds trying to downplay EMC's offering while enhancing the value of his company's position.

The following are a few excerpts from an interview by Flynn on CNBC Monday:

• EMC is following Fusion's architecture with VFCache -- something which should be tough for EMC to leverage as the company depends on its legacy business.
  
  
• Flynn downplayed Fusion-IO as a takeover target, saying the company was more focused on growth now than at any time prior.
  
  
• Growth may come from all angles at Fusion-IO, both organically and through mergers.
  
  
• A GAAP loss last quarter was attributed to rising costs related to refocusing on accelerating growth as the company enters into a large marketplace.
  
  
• Other opportunities for Fusion-IO include Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and Facebook (FB). Companies like those are making stronger moves into cloud storage and utilizing Fusion-IOs quick flash memory.
  
  
• Flynn hopes to further integrate with Facebook. The current relationship translates to FIO products touching 1 billion users almost daily.

Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SBH) (the “Company”) today announced the underwritten public offering of 20,000,000 shares of its common stock held by investment funds associated with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC (the “CDR Investors”) pursuant to the Company’s shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Upon completion of the offering, the CDR Investors will own approximately 24.51% of the common stock of the Company. The Company will not receive any proceeds related to the offering, and its total number of shares of common stock outstanding will not change as a result of the offering.

ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (NYSE: XOM) announced today that it has awarded Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE: WFT) the first global license for the company’s MazeFlo sand control screens for oil wells.

MazeFlo is a patented technology developed by ExxonMobil to improve the reliability of wells completed in sand-prone reservoirs. MazeFlo technology uses redundant screens and a maze of compartments to provide a self-healing capability against sand entering the producing section of a well. Each compartment contains a primary screen, outer housing, flow baffles and a secondary screen. If a primary screen erodes, sand will flow into the affected compartment and accumulate on the secondary screen. Fluid continues to flow to adjacent compartments with undamaged primary screens and can be produced without active involvement from surface operators.

“MazeFlo is one of several openhole sand control completion technologies developed by ExxonMobil during the past few years to address reliability issues in high-cost production wells,” said Sara N. Ortwein, president of Houston-based ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company. “Reliability is very important in deepwater and remote fields where the resource has been developed with high volume wells.”