“We think that the repeatability of our strong well performance of our new investments will be there,” he said. “We think it will take a little bit less capital to deliver the same or higher kind of performance from our onshore assets.”
Murphy executives have this year allotted 30% of the $1.2-billion capex budget to US onshore operations and about 12% to the operator's Canadian onshore assets. For 2026, those shares are likely to dip even as the total pool of dollars stays roughly the same, Hambly said. Murphy will spend a bit more on opportunities offshore Vietnam and Côte d'Ivoire.
The company plans to spud one well offshore Côte d'Ivoire this quarter and follow that up with two more in 2026. In the Gulf of Mexico—the company’s second-largest asset by production, with more than 62,000 boe/d in the third quarter—teams have finished workovers and plan to spud two wells this quarter in the Mississippi Canyon.
Hambly said a significant drop in commodity prices would lead the team to rein in some onshore capex but added that the offshore appraisal programs in Vietnam and Côte d'Ivoire “are likely to be a little more sticky” because of their long-term potential.
“I think you could see us doing those in most cases,” he said. “You would have to probably have a very, very low oil price where we decide to alter those plans.”
In the third quarter, Murphy posted a net loss of about $8 million on total revenues of $733 million. The loss was due primarily to the booking of a $115 million impairment charge on its operated Dalmatian asset in the Gulf of Mexico, where the company had planned to drill two more wells but decided that operating costs would be too high. Adjusted EBITDA was essentially flat from third-quarter 2024 at $391 million.
Total production for the quarter was 200,000 boe/d (132,000 b/d of that from onshore operations) and executives expect that number will drop to about 180,000 boe/d.
Shares of Murphy (Ticker: MUR) rose 5% Nov. 5 on executives’ earnings report and outlook and were up another 1% to $28.34 in late-morning trading the following day. They have surged more than 30% over the past 6 months and the company’s market capitalization now stands at about $4 billion.
