By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 15 -- Most oil company financial executives in a recent survey plan to boost upstream capital spending, KPMG LLP reported. The firm surveyed 538 executives in April.
Results showed 69% of respondents believe their companies' upstream capital spending in North America will increase by more than 10% this year.
Respondents expressed concern about volatile oil and gas prices, and 67% said volatility is bad for the industry. Declining reserves were listed as a growing concern by 88% of the respondents.
"Oil and gas executives are facing one of the most challenging environments they've seen in decades when releasing earnings," said Bill Kimble of KPMG's national industrial markets division. "The marketplace perceives that oil and gas companies have significant influence on the price of gas at the pump."
Other findings included:
-- Regarding LNG receiving terminals, only 17% of respondents believe there are enough terminals built or scheduled for construction.
-- On spending, 24% plan to increase US outlays, 10-30% if federal acreage currently off limits were to become available for leasing and permitting. Meanwhile, 54% saw no impact on their US spending if this happened, and 22% said US spending would increase by less than 10%.
-- When asked about their most significant challenge in 2006, 41% said it's their ability to hire qualified employees, and 18% listed commodity pricing.