Continental Resources says Texas winter storm hit first-quarter production

(Reuters) – U.S. oil producer Continental Resources said on Tuesday the Texas winter storm in February impacted its first-quarter production by about 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The cold wave in U.S. central and southern states disrupted power and gas supply and impacted oil production, refineries and chemical plants for several weeks. Companies including Exxon Mobil warned of a hit to profit.

Continental expects oil production to average about 152,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and natural gas production to average about 935 million cubic feet per day (mmcfpd).

The company also said production for second quarter is expected to be between 160,000 bopd and 165,000 bopd and natural gas production between 920 mmcfpd and 940 mmcfpd.

Continental also fast-tracked its debt-reduction target to $4 billion or below by end of 2021. The company, which had about $5 billion in debt at the end of March, had earlier targeted end of 2022 to reduce its debt to $4 billion.