U.S. oil and gas producer Noble Energy Inc. said it expects to spend less than the $1.5 billion it had budgeted for the year, but raised its 2016 sales volume forecast by 4 percent.

The company, which also reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on lower costs, said its first two Delaware Basin wells in Texas's Reeves County had started producing.

U.S. oil companies are gearing up for new drilling projects, buoyed by a 50 percent increase in crude prices since February.

Noble now expects 2016 sales volumes of 405,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), compared with its earlier forecast of 390,000 boe/d. The company's sales volumes were 416,000 boe/d in the three months ended March 31.

On a barrel of oil equivalent basis, lease operating expenses fell 34 percent to average $3.63 in the first quarter, excluding certain workover costs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Adjusted loss was 53 cents per share, smaller than the average analyst estimate of 57 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Noble’s net loss widened to $287 million, or 67 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $22 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier.