ConocoPhillips has agreed to acquire a 42% interest in BP’s venture redeveloping the giant Kirkuk oil fields in northern Iraq, gaining exposure to more than 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable resources. The investment highlights growing international interest in revitalizing mature producing assets and could create long-term opportunities for oilfield service and infrastructure companies.

ConocoPhillips is adding drilling activity in the Delaware Basin to eliminate frac gaps and keep completion crews fully utilized as completion efficiencies continue to outpace drilling improvements. The strategy highlights the industry’s shift toward integrated manufacturing-style development, where maintaining continuous frac operations is essential to maximizing capital efficiency.

ConocoPhillips is growing its Eagle Ford position through a combination of refracs and new drilling, with management noting that Eagle Ford refracs remain highly competitive with Delaware Basin development opportunities. The company has drilled 95 Eagle Ford wells year-to-date in 2026, led by activity in DeWitt, Karnes, and Live Oak counties, while continuing to execute approximately 50 to 60 refracs annually to maximize recovery from existing assets.

ConocoPhillips’ earnings call reinforces that the Permian—especially the Delaware Basin—acts as a short-cycle, flexible capital engine, allowing the company to quickly adjust activity while maintaining operational efficiency in volatile markets. Supporting this, YTD drilling data shows a strong concentration in the Delaware Basin (66 of 97 wells), led by Loving, Lea, and Eddy counties, with heavy utilization of Nabors rigs driving consistent development.

ConocoPhillips is a pure upstream oil producer, making it highly sensitive to rising crude prices driven by geopolitical tensions and supply disruptions like those in the Strait of Hormuz. This positioning gives it strong earnings upside in a high-price environment, but also increases risk if oil prices decline.

Speculation that ConocoPhillips may sell Delaware Basin assets points to portfolio high-grading rather than a strategic exit, as management repeatedly described the Delaware on its earnings call as core, long-life, and technically improving inventory. That view is reinforced by 2025 drilling data showing 144 wells drilled across just 11 rigs, heavily concentrated in Lea and Loving counties, reflecting a disciplined, manufacturing-style development program rather than retreat.

ConocoPhillips’ Lower 48 capital discipline is being driven by engineering, not activity cuts, with longer laterals emerging as a structural cost lever that lowers cost of supply by 25% moving from 1-mile to 2-mile wells and another 10–15% at 3–4 miles. By coring up acreage, standardizing execution, and concentrating activity on a small number of high-utilization rigs, COP is delivering more production for less capital while holding output steady and reducing Lower 48 capex year over year.

ConocoPhillips enters 2026, its strategy is no longer defined by how fast it can grow, but by how deliberately it can allocate capital in an increasingly volatile energy landscape. The company’s drilling data, portfolio actions, and project sequencing across the Lower 48 and Alaska all point to a clear shift: ConocoPhillips is optimizing for durable free cash flow, operational flexibility, and long-cycle supply security rather than headline production growth.

ConocoPhillips’ 2025 U.S. 500 wells dilled in the US in 2025 tells a clear story: the company is no longer optimizing for headline growth, but for durable free cash flow, operational flexibility, and long-cycle oil supply security.