Oasis Petroleum Inc. (OAS): SPO Advisory Buys More Shares as John Scully Shows Interest in E&P Industry

Oil prices are still looking for the bottom, with crude oil (WTI) currently trading slightly above $50 and the latest reports suggesting that with ample supplies and shrinking storage possibilities for oil, the commodity might still go down even further. Nevertheless, Mr. Scully seems to be optimistic as he has been bullish on several companies in the energy sector during the fourth quarter. As mentioned earlier, Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) is the fourth-largest holding in SPO’s 13F portfolio and during the October-December period the investor raised its stake by 25% to 6.85 million shares, valued at $1.02 billion. Pioneer, which is another E&P company, lost 19% in the last year, which is also below the average industry decline of 15%.

As it is one of the largest companies from the E&P space, Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) has always been on investors’ radars. The last round of 13F filings showed that 59 funds (among those that we track) held long positions with an aggregate value of $3.60 billion worth of the company’s stock, including eight billionaire investors owning roughly half of this aggregate value. SPO Advisory is the largest shareholder of Pioneer Natural Resources among funds that we track, followed by Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global with 6.59 million shares. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group held 1.92 million shares and 1.24 million shares respectively. In addition, Millennium and Citadel boosted their positions in Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) by 1,200% and 2,300% respectively during the fourth quarter, although the holdings still amass less than 1% of their equity portfolios.

Another oil and gas stock on which Mr. Scully has been bullish is Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC), which also comes from the Exploration and Production space. In this $8.3 billion company, SPO Advisory reported a new position with 4.80 million shares, valued at $256.35 million in its last 13F filing. Despite lower oil and gas prices, Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) seems to be poised for growth as the company reported revenues of $2.71 billion for 2014, up from $1.86 billion in the previous year and its EBITDA surged to $1.78 billion from $826 million in 2013. Among other investors bullish on Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) are Wallace Weitz’s Wallace R. Weitz & Co. and Magnetar Capital, led by Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser, which raised their stakes by 85% and 24% on the quarter respectively to 2.05 million shares and 1.91 million shares.

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