Murphy Oil Corporation (MUR) began 2016 with proclamations from management that the company needs to thrive when the price received for oil is in the thirty-dollar range. More than any other company, this one has rapidly moved to lower costs. That meant a lot of significant portfolio purchases and sales of projects.
Major sales of projects in any company portfolio make a complete mess of the financial statements until the activity ends. Trying to gather cash flow data, for example, is extremely hard because discontinued items from the sales are moved to the