Noble Energy cuts capital expenditures as oil producers reel from low prices

WELD COUNTY — A day after PDC Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: PDCE) announced plans to drastically reduce production and new drilling in the Wattenberg Gas Field, fellow major Weld County producer Noble Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: NBL) cut deeper into its budget for 2020.

The Houston-based oil producer said it would cut its capital expenditures for the year to between $800 million and $900 million, half of what it had budgeted at the beginning of the year. It also placed an undisclosed figure of employees on furlough or part-time hours.

“Recent events have had an unprecedented and unpredictable impact on the global economy and the oil and gas industry,” Noble CEO David Stover said in a prepared statement.

Noble Energy previously announced a $500 million cut to capital expenditures and moved 30% of staff to unpaid furlough or part-time hours last month as the dual pressures of a COVID-19 virus-generated fuel demand slump and a price battle between Russia and Saudi Arabia tanked oil prices.

Although Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed this week to cut their production along with other OPEC oil-producing nations, stay-at-home measures across the U.S. and other developed nations have kept those prices depressed.

Noble produced 31.7 million barrels of oil and 165.5 million metric cubic feet of natural gas in Colorado last year, according to data from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Almost all of that was produced in Weld County.

© 2020 BizWest Media LLC

on Facebook on LinkedIn