U.S. oil and gas producer Coterra Energy will hold its rig count steady at nine in the Permian Basin, CEO Tom Jorden said Tuesday, reversing earlier plans to scale back activity as the company grows more confident in the outlook for oil prices.
In May, Coterra announced it would reduce its Permian activity to seven rigs in the second half of 2025 from its original plan of ten, trimming capital spending in the basin by about $150 million.
That decision was driven by oil price headwinds and broader macroeconomic uncertainty.
“I’ve seen these periods of my career where when oil markets wobble, they don’t glide gently down to their low, they kind of wobble for a while, and then they suddenly collapse,” Jorden said at the J.P. Morgan Energy, Power & Renewables Conference.
“We were looking at the possibility of a collapse. We’re feeling a little better about that now.”
Oil prices had been under pressure earlier this year due to concerns about slowing global demand, high inventories, and uncertainty around OPEC+ supply cuts.
(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Alan Barona)