ConocoPhillips sees oil recovery by end of year

Houston

CONOCOPHILLIPS, one of the world's largest shale producers, sees crude prices rising by the end of the year, bolstering the company's growing wager on US oil.

Chief executive officer Ryan Lance is staking a big part of the company's future on shale, pledging to spend 50 per cent more over the next three years primarily in the US and Canada even as crude prices fell by more than half.