Page 16 - AsianOil Week 25

AsianOil NRG AsianOil

and expand known deposits to replace the beyond,” Devon Energy’s CEO, David Hager,
barrels being pumped from its conventional said at a JP Morgan energy conference last
oil reserves. week.
After last week’s positive talk about Yemen However, oil prices of around $40 per barrel
raising its crude oil production by 25%, mat- are anticipated to continue acting as a brake on
ters have come back down to earth with the new drilling, even as some existing production
occupation of the island of Socotra by the is restored.
Southern Transitional Council (STC), which Continental Resources is also among the
was supposed to be part of a power-sharing companies saying that it will start to restore
agreement with the government. Small steps some of its output in response to current crude
of progress are threatening to unravel. prices. The company said it expected to bring
back around 20% of its shut-in production in
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping July.
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click The return of production is not limited to
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor. shale plays. ConocoPhillips – which has both
shale and conventional operations – has also
US producers cautiously restoring output said it is considering restoring some of its cur-
The relative stability of oil prices, with West tailed volumes, which account for about a third
Texas Intermediate (WTI) above $40 per barrel, of its production, over the next few months.
is compelling at least some US producers to start This includes a plan to restore 100,000 bpd of
restoring some of the output they have curtailed shut-in production in Alaska by July.
since March. As US production is being restored, how-
Analysts are estimating that up to 500,000 ever, there are warnings that this could com-
bpd of US shale production – around a quarter plicate global efforts, including those by the
of what has been shut in since the downturn OPEC+ group, to stabilise crude prices by
started – could return to the market by the end restricting output.
of June.
“With prices where they are now, if they If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
stay above $30 [per barrel], I wouldn’t expect the North American oil and gas sector then please click
any significant curtailments from us in Q3 or here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor.™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 25 25•June•2020