Big U.S. Shale Savings Waning Fast
Huge cost savings are waning for U.S. shale oil companies, marking an end to the drastic price cuts on equipment and services over the past 16 months that helped them survive the worst industry downturn in six years. Companies including Anadarko Petroleum Corp, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum Corp have saved millions on drilling and fracking wells in Texas, Colorado and North Dakota since the oil price slide started by demanding that oilfield service companies slash prices by 20 percent to 30 percent or more. Those savings, coupled with big gains in rig productivity that allowed more oil to be pumped with less equipment…
ConocoPhillips Has Cut 5% of Workforce, More to Come
ConocoPhillips, which is working to cut $1 billion in operating costs as low crude prices persist, has so far cut about 1,000 jobs, or 5 percent of its workforce and more cuts are to come, the company's chief financial officer said. The Houston company is going through a review of operations that "is going to result in more jobs cuts," CFO Jeff Sheets told Reuters. He declined to say how many positions will be eliminated. (Reporting by Anna Driver)
U.S. Oil Majors Under Pressure to Cap CAPEX
Top U.S. oil producers, which already were reining in spending before crude prices started to slip in June, are now looking to trim more fat from their budgets while reminding investors they must spend to grow. Exxon Mobil Corp on Friday it would keep its current spending plan intact, though it is about 15 percent less than 2013. Crude oil prices have slumped 25 percent since June as global supplies grow and demand weakens. Exxon, which sets budgets using a long-term horizon, still expects to spend a little bit less than $37 billion a year from 2015 to 2017, an executive told investors on Friday on a conference call.
