Devon Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, plans to “continue to build this thing for the long haul,” president and chief executive officer Rick Muncrief said May 9 after the company reported first-quarter production in line with its forecasts.
In first-quarter 2023, Devon averaged total oil equivalent production of 641,000 boe/d, an increase of 11% from the same period in 2022. Oil production also rose 11% year-over-year to 320,000 b/d, driven by Eagle Ford assets the company added last fall through the acquisition of Validus Energy.
Oil production in the company’s core Delaware basin operations averaged 211,000 b/d during the quarter, up from 201,000 late last year and 209,000 in first-quarter 2022. Across the company’s projects in the Anadarko, Williston, and Powder River basins, oil production was 65,000 b/d. In all, the company added 42 wells to its operations during this year’s first quarter.
That output, coupled with lower realized prices, translated into net profits of $995 million on total revenues of more than $3.8 billion, with both of those numbers essentially in line with those from early 2022. Operating profits were down slightly to about $1.2 billion with production expenses climbing 12% to $693 million (but shrinking 2% to $12.02 per equivalent barrel) while marketing and midstream spending fell more than 16% to $1.1 billion.
The operator is sticking to its full-year production growth guidance of about 9%, which puts Devon on track to average about 650,000 boe/d for all of 2023. The company still expects full-year capital expenditures of $3.6-3.8 billion—with more spending allocated to first-half 2023 and 60% dedicated to Delaware basin—but sees inflationary pressures easing for various goods and services as availability improves.
The company also plans to further develop its Eagle Ford holdings. Chief operating officer Clay Gaspar said the company is more tightly spacing new wells while further developing its refrac program. This year, Devon is looking to spud 90 wells in the basin.
Geert De Lombaerde | Senior Editor
A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has more than two decades of business journalism experience and writes about markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications Healthcare Innovation, IndustryWeek, FleetOwner, Oil & Gas Journal and T&D World. With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati and later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal. Most recently, he oversaw the online and print products of the Nashville Post and reported primarily on Middle Tennessee’s finance sector as well as many of its publicly traded companies.
