Shares of shale oil producer Continental Resources Inc. fell as much as 8% on Feb. 15 after the company gave a 2022 outlook that included higher-than-expected spending and lower-than-expected oil and gas volumes.
Shares were off around 7% at $53.26 in afternoon trading. The decline exceeded the roughly 3.8% drop in other oil shares as U.S. crude futures fell to $91.47/bbl on hopes for an easing of tensions in Eastern Europe.
After the market close on Feb. 14, Continental said it expects to spend $2.3 billion in 2022, above analysts’ forecasts for around $2.14 billion. Last year its capital spending totaled $1.56 billion.
Excluding acquisitions, the capital spending budget is up 15%, CFO John Hart said on the company’s earnings call.
“We plan to allocate approximately $1.8 billion to drilling and completion activities with the majority of the increase over last year due to added capital to the recently acquired Powder River and Permian assets,” Hart said.
Many oil and gas companies are being hit by higher prices for labor and other materials, including sand, amid supply chain bottlenecks. Continental said its legacy capex was up 15% year-over-year due to “minimal growth capex” and inflation.
The company’s production outlook of 195,000 to 205,000 bbl/d of oil underwhelmed analysts, who had anticipated around 206,000 bbl/d of production for the year.
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