(Adds industry and company details)
By Jennifer Hiller
Sept 24 (Reuters) - U.S. oil producer ConocoPhillips
sees global demand returning to 100 million barrels per day and
growing from there, with oil an "important part of the energy
mix in any scenario" going forward, a senior executive said on
Thursday.
The view stands in contrast to that of rival BP Plc,
which sees the coronavirus pandemic leaving a lasting effect on
global energy demand, though ConocoPhillips still expects "quite
a bit of uncertainty next year," Senior Vice President Dominic
Macklon said during a Q&A with Raymond James.
The company's capital spending in 2021 will be "somewhat
below" its original planned 2020 level of $6.6 billion, Macklon
said.
The hardest-hit area of the oil industry in 2020 has been
U.S. shale, where producers cut production and sidelined
equipment as oil prices crashed. While shale output was about
8.2 million bpd at the start of the year, that level will likely
fall by 4 million bpd in 2022, Macklon said.
ConocoPhillips left seven drilling rigs at work in shale
fields, but cut all fracking crews earlier this year as oil
prices crashed. It is returning two fracking
crews to work, Macklon said.
Some shale producers are stockpiling federal drilling
permits ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election as a
hedge against possible rule changes under a Democratic
administration.. Just 20% of ConocoPhillips' Permian
Basin acreage is on federal land in New Mexico, while the
company expects to receive permits within a month for its Willow
project along Alaska's North Slope, "in which case we wouldn't
be exposed" to changes, Macklon said.
In July it agreed to buy land from Kelt Exploration Ltd in
Canada's Montney shale oil play, in a $375 million deal. The
140,000 acres in British Columbia are adjacent to
ConocoPhillips' own Montney lands.
Asked whether it would consider a purchase in an area where
it does not already operate, Macklon said yes, but the
preference is for assets "we know and understand well."
(Reporting by Jennifer Hiller in Houston
Editing by Nick Zieminski and Matthew Lewis)