(Reuters) – The U.S. energy sector is slashing capital spending and jobs as business activity plunged and the outlook has turned “extremely pessimistic” amid the coronavirus pandemic, a survey by the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank of oil and gas companies showed on Wednesday.
“A majority of firms have revised down their expectations for their firms’ oil production, capital expenditures and company outlook,” said Michael Plante, the Dallas Fed researcher in charge of the survey, which collated responses from 161 energy firms.
About two-thirds of the group were exploration and production firms, and the rest oilfield services firms, and all were in the Dallas Fed district which includes Texas and parts of Louisiana and New Mexico. The data was collected March 11-19.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
