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Oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum said on Tuesday it expects flat production growth in 2026 and spending to fall below current-year levels, as crude prices slide.
U.S. shale producers are weathering a global oil slump, with prices hovering in the low $60-per-barrel range, pressured by OPEC+ output hikes and slowing global demand. Benchmark Brent crude has fallen about 12.7% so far this year.
Occidental expects 2026 production to be flat to up 2%, driven primarily by unconventional Permian operations, Chief Financial Officer Sunil Mathew said on a conference call, a day after the company beat third-quarter profit expectations on higher output.
Unconventional resources are hydrocarbons tightly trapped inside layers of rock and can only be accessed using advanced techniques such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
The company forecasts 2026 capital expenditure between $6.3 billion and $6.7 billion, compared with its 2025 projection of $7.1 billion to $7.3 billion.
Occidental plans to invest up to $400 million in U.S. onshore operations in 2026, primarily located in the Permian Basin and the Rockies region. Allocating more capital to such projects is likely to provide it greater flexibility if macro conditions worsen, Mathew said.
The company also intends to increase investment in the “Gulf of America”, referring to the Gulf of Mexico, and Oman by $250 million, while reducing allocation to its low-carbon portfolio.
Additionally, Mathew said Occidental remains focused on cutting its debt load, built up after big-ticket acquisitions of Anadarko Petroleum and CrownRock, while boosting shareholder returns.
“We will be opportunistic with the share repurchase program… we plan to resume the redemption of the preferred (shares) in August 2029,” Mathew said.
Shares of the company closed up marginally at $41.85.
(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
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