Houston-based Coterra Energy said last week it will run 9 rigs in Permian Basin in second half of 2025 rather than 7 as announced in May. Tom Jordan, chairman, president and CEO, said June 24 at a JPMorgan conference in New York that increasing to 9 rigs “reflects his team’s confidence in the stability of the oil market, which had looked like it was struggling this spring.”
Last month, in announcing first quarter earnings, Coterra said it would trim its rig count to 7 from the 10 it envisioned at the beginning of 2025. Coterra produced 303,000 boed (68 percent liquids) in first quarter. Jordan said running 9 rigs in Permian rather than 7 “is likely to mean that its capex will run near the high end of the company’s revised full year range of $2.0 to $2.3 billion.”