ML-Implode News - Oil Firms Slow Exploration to Weather Low-Price Era--Energy Journal

The world's biggest oil companies areÂ draining their petroleum reservesÂ faster than they are replacing them--a symptom of how the oil-price drop is reshaping the industry's priorities, Sarah Kent reports. The seven biggest publicly traded Western energy companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, last year replaced only 75% of the oil and natural gas they pumped.
Low oil prices mean "it becomes less important" to replenish stockpiles, said Luca Bertelli, chief exploration officer of Eni SpA. TheÂ Italian oil producer has shifted spending in favor of squeezing more out of fields that are already producing.
...
Energy companies tapping the stock market to pay down debt and keep rigs drilling amid the low oil prices have found that selling shares at ever lower prices has further diluted the stakes held by existing shareholders, Corrie Driebusch and Ryan Dezember report.

Those who bought roughly $50 million of stock that Goodrich Petroleum Corp. sold last March have been basically wiped out. Much of the money raised by oil and gas producers this year has been through deals that involve banks putting up their own capital to buy a chunk of the company's stock--below the market rate because of the risk they are taking on--before selling it to investors.

Relevant:

Oil Firms Slow Exploration to Weather Low-Price Era--Energy Journal