Capex

U.S. shale oil breakevens have fallen by $20/bbl in one year and may decline more on field efficiencies, resulting in a duel with OPEC for market share, while the rest of the industry fights for relevance, according to Goldman Sachs.

Global upstream spending began to peak last year before the oil price meltdown, but the sharp cuts in capital expenditures (capex) for 2015 have moved into a league of their own, i.e. “austerity on steroids,” according to Raymond James & Associates Inc.

Capital spending reductions by exploration firms and the pace of falling rigs have moved beyond trivial and now pose real dangers to 2015 prospects, according to analysts.

Marathon Oil Corp. plans to cut 2015 spending by 20%, or about $1 billion, year/year with “significant weighting” to U.S. resource plays.

Global exploration and production (E&P) spending in 2014 should increase for the fifth year in a row, with the largest gains again in North America (NAM), a Barclays Capital annual survey has determined.

Shares of Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) closed up more than 4% Wednesday following a pre-market conference call during which CEO Rich Kinder went through a point-by-point explanation of how the company and its Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) account for spending to maintain pipelines and other assets.

Gulfport Energy Corp. Tuesday reported production results for two more Utica Shale wells and said it plans to have natural gas and liquids flowing to pipelines this spring.

Noble Energy Inc. plans to spend $3.9 billion on capital expenditures (capex) in 2013, almost half of which is to go toward drilling horizontal wells in the Niobrara-Denver Julesburg (DJ) Basin.

More than 85% of Houston-based Rosetta Resources Inc.’s 2013 capex budget of $700 million will be spent in the liquids-rich window of the Eagle Ford Shale. About 10% of spending will go to evaluation of new venture opportunities outside the Eagle Ford that the company recently began talking about.