在2020年石油危機之后，大多數能源公司都避免巨資投入增加生產

大石油公司正在提高2023年在二疊紀盆地的支出

低排放的石油項目被列入許多石油公司的優先名單

據油價網12月16日報道 幾個月前，美國政府敦促能源公司停止“戰爭暴利”，甚至威脅說，如果他們不能將利潤投資于降低美國公眾的生活成本和增加產量，就要對他們征收暴利稅。這些呼吁是在石油巨頭在大宗商品和能源價格高漲的情況下創造出利潤記錄的時候發出的。

在2020年石油危機之后，大多數能源公司都避免投入巨資以增產，而是優先考慮以分紅和股票回購的形式將更多現金返還給股東。但有跡象表明，巨頭愿意在未來一年（或幾年）花費更多，甚至有許多能源公司已經宣布了重大支出和資本支出的增加。

很少有地方比二疊紀盆地更能吸引大石油巨頭的注意力。

該盆地的一些最大的石油和天然氣生產商已經公布了明年在該地區加強開采業務和投資的計劃，因為盡管由于即將到來的全球經濟衰退，油價預計將下降，但產量仍將增加。

二疊紀盆地項目

?？松梨跊]有宣布大幅增加支出，但表示其2023年的資本支出將更接近其200億至250億美元年度目標的頂端，預計這一水平將保持到2027年。該公司表示，其70%以上的資本投資將部署在美國二疊紀盆地、圭亞那、巴西和全球的液化天然氣項目。這些投資將有助于將公司的上游產量提高50萬桶/日，到2027年達到420萬桶/日，其中一半預計將來自二疊紀盆地和其他高回報地區。?？松梨谶€公布了計劃，到2027年將低排放項目的支出提高15%，到2027年達到約170億美元。

?？松耐醒┓瘕堉苋?，2023財年的資本支出預算將達到170億美元，處于其150億至170億美元中期范圍的頂部，比2022年的預期支出增長超過25%。

該公司表示，上游資本支出包括用于二疊紀盆地開發的40多億美元；用于其他頁巖和致密資產約20億美元，以及用于降低碳排放或增加可再生燃料產能的項目約20億美元，是2022年預算的兩倍多。盡管雪佛龍2023年的支出將大大高于2020—2021年疫情流行時期的資本支出，但仍遠遠低于2012—2019年期間300億美元的年平均水平。

彭博社援引董事長兼首席執行官Mike Wirth的話說：“盡管有通貨膨脹，我們的資本支出預算仍然符合之前的指導意見?！?/p>

總的來說，越來越多的能源公司對增加支出和產量的想法持開放態度。

加拿大第三大原油和天然氣生產商Cenovus Energy表示，預計2023財年的支出為4億至45億加元，高于2022年33億至37億加元的估計，包括約28億加元的維持資本，用于維持基礎生產和支持運營。Cenovus說，它預計將12億至17億加元用于優化和增長，包括在位于大西洋的西白玫瑰項目建設。

Cenovus還將明年的指導產量定為80萬至84萬桶/日，同比增長超過3%，包括油砂產量為58萬至64萬桶/日，常規產量為12萬至14萬桶/日。同時，該公司預計下游原油總產量將達到61萬至66萬桶/日，同比增長近28%。

三周前，巴西石油和天然氣巨頭巴國油宣布，它將把2023—2027年的投資支出增加約15%，達到780億美元。在780億美元的資本支出計劃中，83%或640億美元被指定用于勘探和開采活動，而67%的勘探和開采資本支出預算將用于鹽田前活動。該公司還計劃將減少碳排放的支出提高到總額的6%，而之前的計劃是4%，并且其脫碳基金將比目前的2.48億美元增加一倍以上。

曹海斌 編譯自 油價網 

Big Oil Pours Billions In The Permian Basin

The majority of energy companies have avoided spending big to expand production in the aftermath of the 2020 oil crisis.

Big oil is raising spending in the Permian in 2023.

Low-emissions oil projects are on the priority lists of many oil companies.

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A couple of months ago, U.S. urged energy companies to stop ‘war profiteering’ and even threatened to slap them with windfall tax if they failed to invest their profits in lowering costs for Americans and increasing production. The calls came at a time when Big Oil has been posting record profits amid high commodity and energy prices. 

The majority of energy companies have avoided spending big to expand production in the aftermath of the 2020 oil crisis, prioritizing returning more cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks. Well, but there are signs that companies are willing to spend more in the coming year(s) even as a raft of energy companies have announced major spending and capex hikes.

And few places have captured the attention of Big Oil more than the Permian Basin. 

Some of the basin’s largest oil and gas producers have unveiled plans to ramp up extraction operations and investments in the region next year as production was forecast to increase despite oil prices projected to dip due to an impending global recession.

Permian Projects

ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) has not announced a drastic increase in spending, but has said that its capital spending for 2023 will be closer to the top end of its annual target of $20B-$25B, a level it expects to maintain through 2027. The company said more than 70% of its capital investments will be deployed in the U.S. Permian Basin, Guyana, Brazil and LNG projects across the globe. These investments will help increase the company's upstream production by 500K boe/day to 4.2M boe/day by 2027 with half of that expected to come from the high return regions in the Permian Basin and other high-return regions. Exxon also unveiled plans to boost spending on lower emission projects by 15% through 2027 to ~$17B through 2027.

Exxon’s peer Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) announced on Wednesday that FY 2023 capital spending budget will clock in at $17B, at the top end of its $15B-$17B medium-term range and up more than 25% from expected spending in 2022. 

The company said that upstream capex includes more than $4B for Permian Basin development; ~$2B for other shale and tight assets and ~$2B to go into projects that lower carbon emissions or increase renewable fuels production capacity, more than double the 2022 budget. Although Chevron’s spending for 2023 will be considerably higher than capital spending in the 2020-21 pandemic years, it’s still much lower than the $30B annual average of the 2012-19 period.

"Our capex budgets remain in line with prior guidance despite inflation," Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth said, as cited by Bloomberg. 

Overall, more and more energy companies are opening up to the idea of increasing spending and production.

Canada's third-largest crude oil and natural gas producer Cenovus Energy (NYSE: CVE) has said it expects to spend C$4B-C$4.5B in FY 2023, higher than estimates of C$3.3B-C$3.7B for 2022, including ~C$2.8B of sustaining capital for maintaining base production and support operations. Cenovus said it expects to direct C$1.2B-C$1.7B towards optimization and growth, including construction of the West White Rose project in Atlantic Canada

Cenovus has also guided for production of 800K-840K boe/day next year, an increase of more than 3% Y/Y, including oil sands production of 582K-642K boe/day and conventional output of 125K-140K boe/day. Meanwhile, the company expects total downstream crude throughput to clock in at 610K-660K bbl/day, up nearly 28% Y/Y.

Three weeks ago, Brazil’s oil and gas supermajor Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) announced that it will increase 2023-2027 investments by about 15% to $78 billion over the company’s 2022-2026 projected spending. Of the $78 billion planned for capex, 83% or $64 billion is earmarked for E&P activities while 67% of the E&P capex budget will go to pre-salt activities. The company also plans to boost spending to reduce carbon emissions to ~6% of the total compared with 4% in the previous plan, and will see its decarbonization fund more than double the current $248M.