- U.S. shale explorers are raising drilling budgets 10x faster than the rest of the world to harvest fields that haul in profits even with the recent drop in oil prices, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
- North American drillers plan to lift their 2017 spending by 32% Y/Y to $84B, with much of the increase in the Permian Basin, where producers have been reaping double-digit returns even with oil commanding less than half what it did in 2014.
- Some recently finished Permian wells yielded 70% returns at Q1 prices, EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG) CEO Bill Thomas said during today's earnings conference call; EOG plans to boost spending by 44% this year to $3.7B-$4.1B, while Permian peer Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) expects a 33% increase to $2.8B.
- Also today, Carrizo Oil & Gas (NASDAQ:CRZO) raised its 2017 production target to 32.4K-32.7K bbl/day from a prior outlook of 31.4K-31.9K after reporting a 12% jump in oil production in Q1, and Sanchez Energy (NYSE:SN) said current Q2 production levels are 46% higher than the average in Q1 and that it expects "operating cash flow and margins to increase through the remainder of the year."
- As if to emphasize the point, the Energy Information Administration today again raised its 2018 U.S. oil production forecast to 9.96M bbl/day, the highest annual per-day output since the EIA started keeping records in 1859.
- Now read: EOG Resources, Inc. 2017 Q1 - Results - Earnings Call Slides
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