Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) provides products and services to oil and gas firms in upstream exploration and production activities.
Chevron posted rather dismal results in Q3 2012, with operational disruptions caused by hurricane Isaac and refinery accidents taking their toll on both, upstream and downstream production volumes.
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Some specialize in upstream (gathering and production) or downstream (refining and marketing) operations.
For those unaware, downstream generally refers to refining and marketing activities, and upstream relates to exploration and production.
The third biggest U.S. integrated oil company will separate its upstream oil-and-gas exploration and production division from its downstream refining division.
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Only a sharp increase in production volumes will help Exxon make any significant improvement in upstream sales.
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Upstream activities include oil and natural gas exploration, field development and production.
Upstream business was relatively solid, with U.S. net oil-equivalent production during the first two months of the quarter coming in close to its Q3 numbers: the company produced 660 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboed) through November.
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As oil and gas firms spend increasingly large parts of their budgets to explore and develop new sources of oil, gas and unconventional sources of hydrocarbons, upstream services firms like Halliburton are expected to reap the windfall as the exploration and production of oil become more challenging and technologically intensive.
In 1996 Gandur made the salmon leap from the downstream activities of oil trading and marketing, which provide thin margins by moving huge volumes of other people's oil, into the upstream, which entails more risk and upfront investment but offers fatter returns. aog inked its first production-sharing contract with the oil minister of Ivory Coast to overhaul the abandoned offshore Espoir oilfield.
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