LITTLE ROCK — President selected
for Murphy spinoff
Murphy Oil Corp. has named R. Andrew Clyde as president and chief executive officer of Murphy Oil USA Inc., its retail marketing subsidiary.
Tuesday’s announcement comes as Murphy Oil prepares to spin off its retail business from its exploration and production operations later this year.
Clyde is a partner in Booz & Co.’s management consulting firm with a specific focus on downstream operations and gasoline and convenience retailing, according to a news release. Clyde will report to Steven Cosse, president and chief executive officer of Murphy Oil until the spinoff is completed.
Murphy Oil USA has more than 1,150 retail locations in the United States and plans to open 200 in an agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
- Jessica Seaman
Firm’s shale assets sell for $9.2 million
PetroQuest Energy Inc.
has sold its Fayetteville Shale assets for $9.2 million, the company said Monday.
PetroQuest, based in Lafayette, La., said it completed the sale last month, according to a news release.
However, the company did not name the buyer and a company spokesman could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
“We are pleased to complete the sale of our non-operated Fayetteville assets, which enables us to further strengthen our balance sheet while increasing our focus on growing our liquids production from our core assets in the Mississippian Lime, Woodford, East Texas and Gulf Coast Basin,” said Charles Goodson, PetroQuest’s president and chief executive officer.
The company estimated operating cash flow from the assets was about $1.3 million for 2012, based on an average daily production of about 5 million cubic feet.
- Jessica SeamanArkansas Index sees slight gain
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the state’s largest public companies, gained 0.11 to 250.37 Tuesday.
“U.S. stocks fell for their second-straight day as investors stepped to the side awaiting the start of the corporate earnings season,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.
“Locally, Arkansas equities reflected the downside bias of the major market averages with declining issues outpacing advancing stocks by 9-to-7.”
Arkansas Best rose 3.3 percent on average volume while Home BancShares fell 1.1 percent, Williams said.
Volume was 22.2 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 24.6 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 25 on 01/09/2013