Cabot, Southwestern Likely to Keep Natural Gas Output, Spending Flat Next Year

Appalachian pure-plays Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. and Southwestern Energy Co. said Friday they’ plan to hold the line on spending and keep production roughly flat with this year’s levels in 2021. 

“Despite the expectation for higher price realizations and cash flow in 2021, our capital allocation priorities remain focused on maintaining our current production levels, funding our current dividend, retiring our 2021 debt maturities and opportunistically returning incremental free cash flow (FCF) to shareholders as we continue to target a minimum return of capital of at least 50% of FCF annually,” Cabot CEO Dan Dinges said.

Southwestern CEO Bill Way said much the same as operators have worked in recent years to meet the expectations of investors searching for better returns....