U.S. oil producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) posted a larger-than-expected quarterly loss on July 24 and said it would cut its 2017 capital budget by $300 million, the first major U.S. oil producer to do so, because of depressed oil prices.
Anadarko and the rest of the U.S. shale oil industry have been grappling with how to conserve cash and maintain growth opportunities even as crude prices have slumped since January.
Many Wall Street analysts had asked U.S. producers to consider cutting budgets, and it was unclear which company would do so first. Anadarko, the first major U.S. producer to report quarterly results, spared the guessing game.
Shares of Houston-based Anadarko fell 2.7% to $43 in after-hours trading on July 24. The company is slated to discuss the results on a conference call with investors July 25.
“The current market conditions require lower capital intensity given the volatility of margins realized in this operating environment,” Anadarko CEO Al Walker said in a statement.
Anadarko in March had forecast 2017 spending of $4.5 billion to $4.7 billion.
Anadarko, which operates in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico as well as Colorado and other U.S. shale regions, South America and Africa, posted a third-quarter loss of $415 million, or 76 cents per share, compared to $692 million, or $1.36 per share, in the year-ago period.
Excluding one-time items, Anadarko lost 77 cents per share. By that measure, analysts expected a loss of 36 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Average daily sales volumes, the physical amount of crude and natural gas sold, fell 20% to 631,000 boe/d.
Anadarko in May closed more than 3,000 wells in Colorado after a fatal home explosion was linked by local authorities to a well operated by the company. Given those closings, Anadarko said it was trimming its 2017 production forecast to 644,000 boe/d, a 2% cut.
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