Shale-Gas Driller Ovintiv Expands Full-Year Production Targets

By Mitchell Ferman

July 31, 2024 at 2:51PM EDT

A Nabors Industries Ltd. drill rig stands over an oil well for Chevron Corp. in the Permian Basin in this aerial photograph taken over Midland, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, March 1, 2018. Chevron, the world's third-largest publicly traded oil producer, is spending $3.3 billion this year in the Permian and an additional $1 billion in other shale basins. Its expansion will further bolster U.S. oil output, which already exceeds 10 million barrels a day, surpassing the record set in 1970. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Shale driller Ovintiv Inc. increased its 2024 production target, the second explorer to do so this year.

The company expects to pump the equivalent of 570,000 to 580,000 barrels of crude this year, compared with the previous forecast of 545,000 to 575,000, according to a statement. At the mid ranges of those targets, the increase would amount to 2.7%. The target for the oil and condensate portion of that output was raised by about 1% to roughly 208,000 barrels a day.

Ovintiv followed Matador Resources Co. in raising full-year production plans at a time when US drillers have been committing to flat or moderate output growth so they can return more cash to investors and expand portfolios of future drilling sites.

Wells in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico are performing better than expected, potentially complicating plans by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies to begin unwinding coordinated output controls intended to bolster crude prices.

Ovintiv’s production is about one-third oil and condensate, with the rest comprised of natural gas and natural gas liquids.