After announcing plans to cut overall spending for the year, U.S. energy company Hess Corp. said Wednesday it suffered major losses in the fourth quarter.

Hess reported fourth quarter adjusted net income was $53 million, compared to $319 million year-on-year. Net loss was $8 million, compared to net income of $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Hess Chief Executive Officer John Hess said in a statement he was confident the company would be able to manage a weak oil market despite the loss.

"We are taking prudent steps in 2015 to reduce our spending and maintain our financial flexibility," he said.

Oil prices have declined to the point that energy companies are having trouble generating money from their drilling programs.

The company announced Monday it was cutting its overall capital and exploration budget for 2015 by 16 percent to $4.7 billion. In its fourth quarter report, Hess said it expected overall production to average around 350,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the year, up about 10 percent from last year.

"The increased production in 2015 will be driven by a full year of production from the Tubular Bells Field in the Gulf of Mexico following first production in late 2014," the company said.

Earlier this week, the company said spending in the Bakken shale oil reserve area in North Dakota would be cut by 18 percent to $1.8 billion. In the Utica shale gas play in and around Pennsylvania, spending will be 42 percent less than last year.