The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Continental Resources Inc. the shale driller, Harold Hamm, has predicted that oil is headed as high as $150 a barrel unless the US government does more to encourage exploration.
This as Chevron Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth, noted that U.S. oil production is being held back by inconsistent energy policy.
“I hear people say, ‘We’re back up to record levels of production,’” Wirth said during the American Energy Security Summit in Oklahoma City on Monday. “With better policy, we would be beyond that.”
Energy policy needs to balance environmental concerns with affordability and reliability, and remain stable, Wirth said.
“We really do need more consistency, more predictable and durable policy, to enable what is the greatest sector of our economy and the biggest single lever to our ongoing global competitiveness,” he said.
Crude output in the Permian Basin will one day peak as it already has in rival shale fields such as the Bakken region of North Dakota and the Eagle Ford in Texas, Continental Chief Executive Officer Doug Lawler said during an interview with Bloomberg TV. Without new exploration, “you’re going to see $120 to $150” oil, he said.
“That’s going to send a shock through the system,” he said on the sidelines of Hamm’s first ever American Energy Security Summit in Oklahoma City.
Without policies encouraging new drilling, “you’re going to see more pressure on price.”
Sprinkled among pro-oil presentations from Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon, shale executives issued calls for the Biden administration to adopt consistent policies that will allow them to drill more.
