By Jennifer Hiller and Liz Hampton
HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.S. shale producers on Monday rushed to deepen spending cuts and reduce future production as oil prices tumbled after OPEC’s decision to pump full bore into a global market hit by shrinking demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Crude futures fell nearly 20% on Monday, the largest one-day slide since the 1991 Gulf War, after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies failed to agree on new output cuts and let production curbs lapse this month. [O/R]
For the last three years, OPEC and its allies, chiefly Russia, have cut supply to support prices, leaving the door open for U.S. shale producers to boost production and capture market share. The United States is now the largest oil producer in the world, pumping out nearly 13 million barrels per day (bpd), but the companies operating in fields in Texas, New Mexico and other states have struggled to make enough money to satisfy investors.
Even before the OPEC deal collapse, those companies were already pulling back on capital expenditures, and that activity will accelerate. Shale companies need prices at least in low $40s per barrel to cover direct costs, said Ian Nieboer, a managing director at consultant Enverus. If U.S. prices remain at a low-$30-a-barrel range, “it starts to look more lethal,” said Nieboer.
Diamondback Energy Inc
U.S. crude futures
Larger oil companies with refining and chemicals businesses were somewhat protected. Exxon Mobil Corp
Diamondback said it released a third of the crews completing new wells, plans to cut three drilling rigs this quarter, and will reduce its 2020 spending budget by undisclosed amount.
The lower activity will remain “until we see clear signs of commodity price recovery,” said Diamondback Chief Executive Travis Stice. “We will maintain positive cash flow and protect our balance sheet and dividend,” he said.
The U.S. government recently forecast domestic production would rise 1 million barrels per day to more than 13 million bpd. But in light of reduced demand and OPEC’s higher output, oil production growth “will be roughly zero” compared with 2019, estimated Paul Mecray, managing director for Tower Bridge Advisors.
Reduced global demand means the call on U.S. shale will fall 2-3 million bpd, said Paul Sankey, a researcher at investment firm Mizuho Americas. That would imply an additional 20% reduction in oil companies’ spending this year, he wrote.
RIPPLE EFFECT
The weekend decision to pump full bore is “analogous to what OPEC did around 2014,” said Brock Hudson, managing director at investment bankers Carl Marks Advisors. That effort – designed to keep OPEC’s market share against a rising U.S. shale output – ultimately failed and OPEC later set production curbs.
But this time, shale is lacking support from investors who four years ago bought their debt, financed reorganizations and kept shale producing. This time, U.S. producers are “going to be suspending completions and things like that” to keep producing, said Hudson.
Companies likely will halt well completions at a pace that could lead U.S. production to decline by 1 million bpd by the end of summer, said Richard Spears, vice president of oilfield consultancy Spears & Associates.
The ripple effect will hit oilfield service firms and state budgets. Scandrill Inc expects to cut about 22 workers assigned to one rig after a customer on Friday decided to pull back on new drilling, said Senior Vice President Paul Mosvold.
“Private equity backed (oil companies) are going to pull back fairly dramatically on the rig count – which is the canary in the coal mine,” Mosvold said.
Oil output more than doubled in New Mexico, generating more than $500 million in proceeds from past auctions, and lifting it into the third-largest U.S. producing state. Colorado rose to the fifth-largest by volume last year.
(Reporting by Jennifer Hiller in Houston, Liz Hampton in Denver and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York. Writing by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
