原标题：康菲石油公司创下2018年以来最高利润

　　中国石化新闻网讯 据8月3日Rigzone消息：随着大宗商品价格上涨，美国最大的独立石油生产商康菲石油公司的利润达到近三年来的最高水平。

　　康菲石油公布第二季度调整后每股收益为1.27美元，而彭博社调查分析师的预期为1.13美元。该股在盘前交易中上涨了1.9%。

　　美国能源企业正利用股票回购和派息吸引投资者进入该行业。此前该行业多年表现不佳，仅占标准普尔500指数的2.6%，低于10年前的逾12%。今年6月，康菲石油将股票回购规模提高了三分之二，达到每年25亿美元，成为首批提高股东回报以应对大宗商品价格的大型能源公司之一。

　　因此，几乎没有人期望该公司会进一步增加现金回报。

　　首席执行官瑞安·兰斯在声明中表示，这是“该行业的决定性时刻”。“康菲石油公司以可靠的多年计划和持续的强劲执行力来迎接这一刻”。

　　兰斯一直在降低资本支出并减缓产量增长，这是承诺将其现金流的一半再投资于新钻探并将其余部分返还给股东的承诺的一部分。这一承诺凸显了美国石油生产商如何保持生产纪律，并且不太可能回到过去的高增长率。

　　一个关键问题是，康菲石油高管计划如何处理公司价值约70亿美元的现金储备。知情人士上月透露，据说该公司是荷兰皇家壳牌公司二叠纪盆地资产的几家竞购者之一，该资产价值高达100亿美元。美国页岩区块已成为今年并购活动的温床，康菲石油以130亿美元收购Concho Resources Inc.的股票，从而获得了迄今为止最大的一笔交易。

　　该公司将在纽约时间中午召开电话会议，讨论财报。

　　冯娟 摘译自 Rigzone

　　原文如下：

　　ConocoPhillips Posts Highest Profit Since 2018

　　ConocoPhillips beat estimates as rising commodity prices led America’s biggest independent oil producer to the highest profit in nearly three years.

　　Conoco posted adjusted earnings of $1.27 a share in the second quarter, compared with the $1.13 estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The stock rose 1.9% in pre-market trading.

　　U.S. energy companies are using buybacks and dividends to attract investors to the sector after years of poor performance left it making up just 2.6% of the S&P 500, down from more than 12% a decade ago. Conoco became one of the first large energy companies to increase shareholder returns in response to high commodity prices when it lifted its share buyback by two thirds to $2.5 billion a year in June.

　　As such there was little expectation the company would further increase cash returns.

　　This “is a defining moment for the sector,” Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance said in the statement. “ConocoPhillips uniquely meets this moment with a credible multiyear plan, continued strong execution.”

　　Lance has been lowering capital spending and slowing production growth as part of a pledge to reinvest only half of its cash flow in new drilling and return the rest to shareholders. The promise underscores how U.S. oil producers are maintaining production discipline and are unlikely to go back to high growth rates seen in the past.

　　A key question is what Conoco executives plan to do with the company’s cash pile worth about $7 billion. The company is said to be among several suitors for Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Permian Basin assets, worth as much as $10 billion, people familiar with the matter said last month. The U.S. shale patch has become a hotbed of merger activity this year, and Conoco secured the biggest deal to date with the $13 billion stock purchase of Concho Resources Inc.

　　The company will hold a call discussing earnings results at noon New York time.