Monday, August 10, 2020

World Oil - Shale drillers plan for maintenance, not growth, as oil prices stall

HOUSTON (Bloomberg) --America’s most prolific shale drillers are accepting a fate once anathema to an industry obsessed with growth: Drilling just to ward off production drops.

The pandemic and subsequent plunge in crude prices has forced U.S. crude explorers to scrap plans to expand supplies amid investor skepticism toward the shale business model. For some of the biggest names in the Permian, that’s meant vowing restraint as long as oil lingers at levels too poor to justify a new boom.

The pledges also come on the heels of the worst crude crash in the 161-year history of the petroleum industry. Explorers are disclosing just how deeply their balance sheets were wounded by a quarter that included the heretofore unheard-of phenomenon of negative prices.

“These guys have all just had a near-death experience,” said Raoul LeBlanc, an analyst at IHS Markit Ltd. “It will take some time to get themselves back in a a better position.”



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