Marathon to lower drilling activities in US shale plays.

摘要

The upstream firm announced on Aug. 1 that it will lower the amount of rigs it is operating in the Anadarko Woodford shale play in Oklahoma, Bakken play in North Dakota, and Eagle Ford play in Texas as a result of decreasing energy prices and rising production costs. Marathon Oil Corp. will join a number of other firms (e.g., Continental Resources Inc. and Occidental Petroleum Corp.) that have reduced drilling activities in these shale plays in recent months following rising production costs and lower energy prices. Marathon will lower the amount of rigs operating in the Anadarko Woodford play from six to two due to falling natural gas liquids (NGLs) prices. In Bakken, the amount of rigs operated by Marathon will drop from eight to five though it hopes to increase overall production from its Bakken rigs by 5K boe/d to 30K boe/d. Marathon's Eagle Ford rigs will drop from 20 to 18. Previously, the company had stopped all drilling activities in the Niobrara shale play in Colorado and Wyoming due to high production costs and poor well results.