Earnings

A pair of Denver-based oil and gas producers said plummeting commodity prices weighed on first quarter earnings and muddied their 2020 outlooks, necessitating investment cuts.

To ensure its financial viability in uncertain times, WPX Energy Inc. is dropping rigs and crews in the Permian and Williston basins, as well as building a backlog of uncompleted wells to hold the line on costs until energy demand is higher.

Ring Energy Inc., whose drilling expertise is focused in the Permian Basin’s Northwest Shelf and Central Basin Platform, has joined its peers and suspended all operations pending an improved outlook for the energy industry.

Armed with major reductions in spending and a pause on some projects, Enable Midstream Partners LP, Targa Resources Corp. and DCP Midstream LP have joined companies up and down the energy supply chain in positioning themselves to emerge from the oil market decline and economic downturn on strong financial footing.

Two Pacific Northwest natural gas-plus utilities reported Friday their separate approaches to maintaining essential services in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown.

While its diverse operations continued to thrive, earnings growth didn’t follow for Bismarck, ND-based MDU Resources Group in 1Q2020 as it shifted gears internally to confront the coronavirus, senior executives said Friday.

Energy Transfer LP (ET) has found new ways to store products and has reduced spending for the year as it navigates the historic oil price collapse, but management for the Dallas-based midstreamer said the market has reached a bottom with improvement and growth for the remainder of the year.

Denver-based PDC Energy Inc., which produced about 185,000 boe/d in 1Q2020 from the combined Wattenberg field in Colorado and the Permian Basin, is curtailing 20-30% of its oil and gas volumes this month, with additional curtailments likely in June and potentially longer, depending on the direction of prices.

Sempra Energy has revealed a one-time $72 million charge for litigation related to the 2015-16 methane leak at the Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon Storage Field.