Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) reports its 2013 capital and exploratory budget of US $6.8 billion, which is down 18% from 2012 expenditures of approximately US $8.3 billion.

Of the US $6.7 billion budgeted for E&P, US $2.7 billion (40%) is dedicated to unconventional shale resources and the remainder is focused on conventional resources, with US $1.85 billion (28%) for production, US $1.6 billion (24%) for developments and US $550 million (8%) for exploration. As in recent years, US $100 million is dedicated to marketing and refining and corporate.

According to the release, the budget is focused on investment opportunities and consistent with the company’s plan to significantly reduce overall expenditures in 2013.

Unconventional expenditures of approximately US $2.7 billion include:

• Development of the Bakken shale in North Dakota, where Hess plans to operate 14 rigs and complete the expansion of the Tioga Gas Plant.

• Drilling appraisal wells in the Utica shale in Ohio.

Production expenditures of approximately US $1.85 billion include:

• Drilling production wells on Block G (Hess 85% operator) in Equatorial Guinea.

• Drilling production and water injection wells at the Valhall field in Norway (Hess 64%) and the South Arne field in Denmark (Hess 61% operator).

• Drilling production and water injection wells at the Shenzi field (Hess 28%) and drilling a production well at the Llano field (Hess 50 percent) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

Development expenditures of approximately US $1.6 billion include:

• Development drilling at the Tubular Bells field (Hess 57% operator) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

• Installation of the early production system and front-end engineering and design for full field development of North Malay Basin (Hess 50% operator).

• Continued development of Block A-18 (Hess 50%) in the joint development area in the Gulf of Thailand.

Exploration expenditures of approximately US $550 million include:

• Further exploration activities on the Deepwater Tano/Cape Three Points block (Hess 90%) in Ghana.

• Completing seismic and drilling two wells at the Dinarta and Shakrok blocks (Hess 80%) in IraqiKurdistan.

Hess Corp. is a global independent energy company with headquarters in New York that is primarily engaged in the exploration for and production of crude oil and natural gas, and the marketing of refined petroleum products, natural gas and electricity.