StockBullz.com

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Current low oil prices aren't affecting ExxonMobil Corp.'s (XOM) spending plans, a company executive said Monday.

"The lower price environment is having no impact in terms of our investment," Russell Bellis, ExxonMobil's exploration director for Europe, Middle-East and North Africa told a conference.

When doing budget planning "we never envisioned prices like we had last year" where the oil price peaked at $147 a barrel, he said. Prices have since fallen to around $40 a barrel.

Asked if the sharp price drop could lead to bankruptcy for oil service companies, Bellis said he expects "viable contractors to continue to supply the industry." But he said "there may be some consolidation and some of them may go out of business."

Boy, is Silvercorp moving up today. It's up about 14% as I write this and showing really good strength. The company used to be one of my favorite picks when it was doing well and it will come back I am sure of that. The fantastic management team there has done a great job of becoming a low cost producer in China.

Put it on your watch list for sure. More to come in the next few days.

There are unconfirmed rumours that Imperial Oil executive read StockBullz. Just two days after the site denounced Big Oils' spending cuts, Imperial Oil has in fact decided to boost exploration spending.

“We do take a long term approach and we are very disciplined in terms of our investment process and our operational process,” said Imperial spokesman Gordon Wong. “It’s in times like these when you start to see those kinds of results.”

UBS Securities Canada Inc. analyst Andrew Potter said Imperial and Exxon Mobil, with their massive cash positions, are well positioned to take a bet on the oil sands.

“If you can afford to keep going, you are probably far better off in terms of labour productivity and availability when nobody else is around,” he said.

Mr. Potter said Imperial is one of the few in the oil industry planning to spend more money this year than last and Kearl will probably be one of the few oil sands projects to be sanctioned in 2009. (Read more here.)

Big news today was the hostile takeover bid for UTS by Total. In additions to Petrobras and Shell here is another company that is actually doing something smart (as opposed to slashing budgets!).

There have been $27.7-billion worth of transactions in this sector over the past four years. On average, properties have changed hands at $1.34 for each potential barrel of reserves that soak the sand.

Total's offer for UTS values the target company at just 14 cents for each barrel of reserves, or 9 per cent of the average price that previous buyers paid to gain control of oil sands properties. That's what a credit crunch, environmental uncertainty and plunging crude prices have done for the energy companies.

Good Read here and here.

I want to highlight a situation that I haven't seen addressed yet (that I know yet). This is the fact that nearly ALL the oil companies are slashing spending by HUGE amounts.

Calgarians will see more layoffs, canceled projects and losses on investment this week and over the next several weeks as oil and gas companies deliver what analysts are predicting will be the worst fourth-quarter results in years.

The contrast with the third quarter, when many companies reported record profits, couldn't be more stark. As oil prices plunged from all-time highs last summer and credit markets tightened, trust companies have chopped distributions to investors, stock prices have plummeted and 2009 spending plans have been cut to the bone. (More here.)

Now I'm not oblivious to the fact that Oil prices are down about 70% from their peaks but why is EVERYBODY doing the exact same thing?