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Vicki Hollub, chief executive officer of Occidental Petroleum Image: Occidental The decline in Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s oil production in the Permian Basin has left the company with so much unused capacity on pipelines to the Gulf Coast that the problem will drive a midstream loss of as much as $750 million this year. Occidental said Tuesday that total Permian production is expected to be about 485,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day this year, well short of the 800,000 barrels of pipeline space it’s committed to. That means the company needs to buy the balance elsewhere, adding to costs. Occidental has long held more pipe space than it needs from the Permian, in the hope that its shale business would eventually grow big enough to make use of it. But last year’s oil-price crash, and, more recently, the winter freeze in Texas, caused the company to cut investment and production in an effort to prioritize near-term cash flow for debt reduction. That has left its pipeline position exposed. Though oil flows should improve later in the year as Occidental restores production following the extremely cold weather, it will be some way off what’s needed to fill the pipes. Furthermore, […]
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