Market fundamentals, not commodity prices, will determine whether EOG Resources Inc. decides to increase oil production over the coming months, executives said during the recent first quarter conference call.

EOG

The Houston-based independent plans to maintain production at around 440,000 b/d until demand has recovered to above pre-Covid levels and U.S. crude inventories are below the five-year average, CEO Bill Thomas told analysts during the call last Friday. EOG also is “looking for spare capacity to be certainly a lot lower than it is right now.”

COO Billy Helms said EOG expects global demand could reach pre-pandemic levels of around 100 million b/d by year-end.

“The inventories are dropping,” Helms said, adding, “we think…there will be fairly consistent draws on...