Falling CAPEX But Solid Production Growth -- RBN Energy -- February 21, 2019

Jobs (link here):

• new claims
• prior: 239K
• consensus: 225K (a drop of 14K)
• actual: 216K

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Back to the Bakken

One well coming off the confidential iist today -- Thursday, February 21, 2019: 87 wells for the month; 190 wells for the quarter

• 33010, SI/NC, Petroshale, Petroshale US 12H,

Active rigs:

$57.11	2/21/2019	02/21/2018	02/21/2017	02/21/2016	02/21/2015
Active Rigs	66	55	42	38	127

  
RBN Energy: early E&P guidance shows falling CAPEX but solid production growth.

Once the “riverboat gamblers” of U.S. industry, executives at exploration and production companies got religion after the brutal oil price crash in late 2014 and adopted a far more conservative approach to investment based on their new 11^th commandment: “Thou shalt live within cash flow.” So it’s no surprise that early 2019 guidance issued by more than half of the 45 major E&Ps we track shows them cutting back capital investment in response to last fall’s decline in oil prices from a more optimistic scenario a year ago.

Nearly three-quarters of the 26 companies reporting their 2019 guidance are reducing exploration and development outlays, while only three of the remainder are budgeting increases greater than 10%. What is surprising is that these forecasts include solid production growth virtually across the board, especially for E&Ps that focus on crude oil. Today, we look at how a representative group of U.S. E&Ps are dealing with lower crude prices.