Lehman - the cap ex story continues... snowing on the Great Lakes
... and a cold front coming. Go Gas !
...just watch the nat gas ticker to trade here imho. Up .06 cents to 2.58ish for Jan delivery - nice move from the 2.20 bottom here lately.
Lehman sees rise in oil/gas E&P budgets for 2000
NEW YORK, Dec 14 - Lehman Brothers' Oil Service & Drilling equity research team said Tuesday that exploration and production (E&P) spending in North America for 2000 will likely increase by about 15.7 percent.
Lehman Brothers attributed the sharp rise to a growing optimism toward natural gas and the rapid response of independent producers to higher cash flows.
The 215 independent oil and gas companies surveyed are expected to increase their E&P spending by 22.5 percent next year, while the majors are predicting a 8.4 percent gain, Lehman said in a statement.
The largest growth is expected in Canada, where 78 companies said they were budgeting an increase of 28 percent.
Outside North America, however, the outlook is not quite as positive, Lehman Brothers said, noting a survey of 320 companies worldwide indicated a 10.2-percent aggregate increase in E&P expenditures.
``This is likely to be viewed by investors as disappointing,' said James Crandell, senior oil services analyst, who described the consensus outlook for growth in expenditures as 15 percent.
Specifically outside North America, the survey of 97 companies showed only a 5.7-percent gain in E&P expenditures.
Lehman Brothers blamed the lagging spending on oil company mergers and the uncertainty about oil prices.
Separately, Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas Corp. (NYSE:LD - news) earlier this month said its Board of Directors approved an exploration and development budget of $210 million for 2000, a 53 percent increase from the $135 million estimated to be invested in drilling activities in 1999.
The company said it intends to fund the 2000 drilling program from operating cash flows. Proved reserve acquisitions are expected to add about $50 million to the 1999 capital program.
Also, Murphy Oil Corp. (NYSE:MUR - news) recently said its exploration budget is expected to increase over 75 percent in 2000 to in excess of $150 million, primarily targeted at the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
Several other oil and gas companies noted this week their budgets would likely be available later this year or early next year.
*** This is the mo-mo catalyst for the drillers - choose your ponies & mount up. Onshore US & GOM is where the USA Independants are really ramping it up, Intnl per the comments above may lag a bit, but still up... |
