據彭博新聞社報道，私募股權公司Kimmeridge能源管理公司表示，在積累現金并償還大部分債務后，美國頁巖勘探公司已經為應對潛在的信貸危機做好了充分準備。

Kimmeridge能源管理公司合伙人本·戴爾在接受媒體記者采訪時表示：“我認為上游業務從未像今天這樣處于較好的低迷狀態。”“作為一個行業，我們正朝著基本上沒有債務的方向發展。”

頁巖行業歷來嚴重依賴油氣資產擔保的貸款，這引發了人們的擔憂，即席卷銀行業的動蕩將切斷鉆井公司獲得信貸的渠道。與此同時，對經濟衰退的擔憂正在壓低燃油價格，并有可能侵蝕兩年來利潤豐厚的局面。

但近幾年來，頁巖鉆井公司已從不計后果的支出和不受限制的產量增長，轉向嚴格的資本紀律。新的商業模式可能有助于保護該行業免受信貸危機的影響。

戴爾表示：“當油價升至每桶130美元時，我們對這些公司的自律程度印象深刻。”“當你看到大宗商品價格下跌時，我們對運營商的反應印象深刻，他們理性地減少在用鉆機數量，專注于盈利。”

Kimmeridge持有公開上市的石油和天然氣生產公司的股份，包括西維塔斯資源有限公司和切薩皮克能源公司。Kimmeridge還是懷俄明州泰坦勘探有限責任公司的所有者。

戴爾在2012年創立Kimmeridge之前曾是英國石油公司（bp）的勘探地質學家和地球物理學家，他預計今年美國頁巖日產量將增長不到25萬桶。這比他幾個月前預測的水平下降大約10萬桶。

勞動力短缺和供應鏈混亂造成的創紀錄成本，導致美國頁巖部門產量增長放緩。勘探公司也正在耗盡頂級探區資源。最近幾個星期，美國一些最大的石油公司重申了今年保持產量低增長的計劃。

戴爾表示：“如果企業產量增長，就會加劇庫存問題。”“在資本進入這個領域，在市盈率擴大之前，實際上沒有產量增長的真正動力。”

李峻 編譯自 彭博新聞社

原文如下:

Kimmeridge: U.S. shale drillers “well prepared” to manage potential credit crisis

U.S. shale explorers are well prepared to manage a potential credit crisis after piling up cash and paying down most of their debt, according to private equity firm Kimmeridge Energy Management Co.

“I don’t think the upstream business has ever been in better position for a downturn than it is today,” Kimmeridge managing partner Ben Dell said in an interview. “We’re heading to being essentially debt-free as an industry.”

The shale industry has historically been heavily reliant on loans secured by their oil and gas assets, stoking concern that the turmoil engulfing the banking sector will cut off drillers’ access to credit. Fears of a recession, meanwhile, are weighing on fuel prices and threatened to erode profits after a two-year bonanza.

But shale drillers have made a strategic shift in recent years from reckless spending and unchecked output growth to strict capital discipline. The new business model could help shield the industry from the fallout of a credit crunch.

“When oil went to $130, we were kind of impressed by the level of discipline the companies held,” Dell said. “As you’ve seen commodities come down, we were pretty impressed by the reaction from operators in terms of being rational and dropping rigs and focusing on profitability.”

Kimmeridge holds stakes in publicly traded oil and gas producers including Civitas Resources Inc. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. It’s also the owner of Titan Exploration LLC in Wyoming.

Dell, who was an exploration geologist and geophysicist at BP Plc before founding Kimmeridge in 2012, expects oil from U.S. shale to grow by less than 250,000 bbl this year. That’s down by about 100,000 bbl from the level he would have predicted a few months ago, he said.

Record costs from a shortage of labor and supply-chain snarls are contributing to a slowdown in production growth from the U.S. shale patch. Explorers are also running out of top—tier acreage. In recent weeks, some of the biggest U.S. oil companies have reaffirmed plans to keep growth low this year.

“If you grow, you accelerate your inventory problem,” Dell said. “Until capital comes into the space, until multiples expand, there’s actually no real incentive to grow.”