Marathon Oil Corp. CEO Lee Tillman promised investors during a quarterly conference call on Thursday that higher oil and natural gas prices would not move the company to increase capital spending this year.

marathon earnings

The Houston-based super independent, which has set a 2021 capital expenditure (capex) budget of $1 billion, generated $422 million of free cash flow (FCF) in 2Q2021. Assuming an average $65/bbl West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price and $3/Mcf Henry Hub natural gas, the company should generate $1.9 billion FCF, Tillman said. 

However,  Marathon Oil does not intend for its reach to exceed its grasp.

“As I’ve said many times, our budget is our budget,” Tillman said. “We won’t raise our spending levels with stronger commodity prices, but we’ll simply generate more free...