Gas prices are high. Oil CEOs reveal why they’re not drilling more

Fifty-nine percent of oil executives said investor pressure to maintain capital discipline is the primary reason publicly traded oil producers are Today, oil companies are under enormous pressure from Wall Street to return cash to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, instead of investing in badly needed supply. “Discipline continues to dominate the industry,” an executive from an oilfield services firm told the One executive surveyed pointed to the staggering losses suffered by shareholders in recent years. The energy sector, comprised largely of oil-and-gas firms, was The business activity index in the Dallas Fed survey jumped in the first quarter to the highest level in its six-year history. That gain was driven by a sharp increase in the oil production index.The bad news is that Big Oil companies are signaling just a modest increase in supply.Among large oil companies, the median production growth rate between the fourth quarter of last year and first quarter of this year was 6%. Small firms, many of which are not publicly traded, expect much faster production growth of 15%.If US oil companies and OPEC fail to ramp up output, analysts have warned that energy prices will likely stay painfully high.One oil executive in the Dallas Fed survey said the United States needs to raise production by about two million barrels per day in 2023 to balance global supply and demand.”It is looking unlikely that this will happen,” the executive said, “which will result in sustained higher energy prices until the American consumer is pushed into recession.”