Occidental

There’s been a frenzy of M&A activity in the Permian Basin the past couple of years, and in recent months many of the acquiring E&Ps have reviewed their expanded base of assets, determined which acreage, wells and future well sites are core to their business going forward, and initiated the process of divesting the rest. At the same time, others — including some producers that were part of the merger mania — are on the hunt for what they see as underappreciated assets with the potential to shine. Folks, we’re in the early stages of what you might call “The Great Permian Reshuffling” — a rapid-fire exchange of upstream assets in the nation’s most prolific shale play. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss a few of the most noteworthy “bolt-on” deals and what they tell us. 

It may be considerably smaller in scale than the recent ExxonMobil/Pioneer and Chevron/Hess megadeals, but Occidental Petroleum’s announcement that it will acquire privately held CrownRock LP for $12 billion is remarkable in its own right. Among other things, the deal will give Delaware Basin-focused Oxy a strong foothold in the absolute core of the Midland Basin, supercharge its free cash flow and — despite increasing Oxy’s debt in the short term — provide a pathway for the company to return much more money to shareholders via dividends and stock buybacks in the years ahead. In today’s RBN blog, we examine Oxy’s planned acquisition of CrownRock and what it means for the acquiring company and the Permian itself. 

Oil-Weighted exploration and production companies (E&Ps) are slashing capital spending in 2015, as they need to regain control of their costs in today’s lower oil price environment. With robust oil prices over the past three years, these companies only posted middling profitability as capital and operating costs ate up much of their incremental revenue. The Large Oil Weighted E&Ps are cutting back less than the Small/Mid-Sized Oil Weighted E&Ps as they are more financially secure and have more ability to spend through the price cycle. The Small/Mid-Sized Oil Weighted E&Ps are focused on getting their spending in line with cash flows and to get to a point where they are self-funding their capital investment. Today we explore how each of the companies in the two oil-weighted peer groups is trying to resolve these issues.

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) offers the potential for releasing huge volumes of crude now stranded underground, but the pace of EOR is dependent largely on how much carbon dioxide can be captured and piped to mature oil fields where EOR would work best. Many of the best natural sources of CO2 near these fields have already been tapped, and while they will continue to provide most of the CO2 used in EOR, they need to be supplemented by expansions and by new, industrial sources of CO2 if EOR is to fulfill its promise. In today’s blog, we continue our look at CO2-producing projects on the horizon, and assess the resulting outlook for CO2-based EOR.

Permian Basin crude producers are currently churning out over 1.5 MMb/d of crude from a basin that has produced oil since the 1920’s but is the center of a recent renaissance. With new production comes new demand for takeaway capacity and between January 2013 and the end of 2015, about 1 million barrels of new pipeline has been constructed or will come online directed towards Houston, Nederland and Corpus Christi, TX. About a dozen new gathering systems are being constructed to help get new production from the wellhead to the larger takeaway pipelines. Today we continue our series on new Permian gathering infrastructure.

Apart from local refinery demand, the majority of Permian Basin crude production is currently shipped to Midwest refiners on existing pipelines. New takeaway capacity projects look to change that balance towards the Gulf Coast where prices are higher now. Today we review projects to add almost 1 million barrels per day of new Permian takeaway capacity by the end of 2014.

The Permian Basin has been producing oil in West Texas since the 1920’s. The principal route to market for Permian crude has been via Cushing, OK to Midwest refineries. After declining in the 1980’s Permian production is increasing again – reaching an estimated 1.3 MMB/d (September 2012 Bentek). The existing pipeline infrastructure means the majority of that crude still finds its way to Cushing and the Midwest. There Permian producers face the same congestion and price discounts that Canadian and Bakken producers have suffered. Today we review current Permian Basin routes to market.