埃克森美孚警告低油价会影响探明储量减少20%

埃克森美孚(Exxon Mobil Corp.)警告说，低能源价格可能会使其五分之一的石油和天然气储量从账面上消失。

该公司周三在一份文件中表示，如果今年剩余时间油价持续低迷，“到2020年年底，一定数量的原油、沥青和天然气将不符合探明储量的标准。”如果石油产量下降20%，其影响将相当于近45亿桶原油，该量足以供应美国墨西哥湾沿岸每家炼油厂18个月的原油需求。

该公司位于阿尔伯塔省的大型基尔（Kearl）油砂矿是唯一被列为可能在年终调整中受到影响的资产。帝国石油有限公司(Imperial Oil Ltd.)在另一份文件中说，基尔石油储量中尚未确定的部分可能面临危险。该公司由埃克森美孚持有约70%的股份，是一家子公司。

埃克森美孚没有等到传统的年底才调整储量。在削减了100亿美元的钻井预算以应对病毒引发的市场崩溃后，该公司周三表示，已从台账上删除了约10亿桶石油。文件显示，其中大部分涉及页岩田。

该公司还表示，计划将当前季度的信贷安排从75亿美元增加到100亿美元。

埃克森美孚周三在纽约上涨0.9%，至43.85美元。帝国上涨1.6%。基尔占帝国石油公司35亿桶已探明储量的60%。

另外，雪佛龙公司(Chevron Corp.)在周三提交的一份文件中说，预计将把主要位于二叠纪盆地和澳大利亚的石油储量下调10%左右。

最近几周，由于疫情大流行破坏了石油需求和价格，导致一些油田无法盈利，荷兰皇家壳牌公司(Royal Dutch Shell Plc)、英国石油公司(BP Plc)和道达尔石油公司(Total SE)冲销了数十亿美元的石油储备。埃克森美孚是当前危机中唯一的坚守者，到目前为止还没有下调任何利率。

埃克森美孚上一次大幅调整储量是在2016年，当时该公司将其在加拿大的部分油砂资产从帐面上移除，不过后来又将部分油砂资产补上了帐面。

埃克森美孚高级副总裁Neil Chapman在7月31日与分析师的电话会议上表示，该公司目前正在进行年度"非常严格"的资产价值评估，应在11月前向董事会提交结果。虽然埃克森美孚不像欧洲同行那样公布大宗商品价格预估，但Chapman表示，预估"与第三方预估区间一致"。

赵斌 编译自 钻井网

原文如下：

Exxon Says 20 Percent of Reserves Threatened

Exxon Mobil Corp. warned that low energy prices may wipe as much as one-fifth of its oil and natural gas reserves off the books.

If depressed prices persist for the rest of the year, “certain quantities of crude oil, bitumen and natural gas will not qualify as proved reserves at year-end 2020,” the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. A 20% hit would impact the equivalent of almost 4.5 billion barrels of crude, or enough to supply every refinery on the U.S. Gulf Coast for 18 months.

The company’s massive Kearl oil-sands mine in Alberta was the only specific asset singled as a potential victim of any year-end revision. Imperial Oil Ltd., which is about 70% owned by Exxon and run as a subsidiary, said in a separate filing that an undetermined portion of Kearl’s reserves may be imperiled.

Exxon isn’t waiting until the traditional end-of-year period to reasses reserves. After slashing its drilling budget by $10 billion to cope with the virus-driven market collapse, the company on Wednesday said it removed about 1 billion barrels from its books. Most of that involved shale fields, according to the filing.

The supermajor also said it plans to increase a credit facility from $7.5 billion to $10 billion in the current quarter.

Exxon rose 0.9% to $43.85 on Wednesday at in New York. Imperial rose 1.6%. Kearl accounts for 60% of Imperial’s 3.5 billion barrels of proved reserves.

Separately, Chevron Corp. said in a filing Wednesday that it expects to revise its reserves downward by about 10%, mainly in the Permian Basin and Australia.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and Total SE have written off billions of dollars in reserves in recent weeks as the pandemic destroyed oil demand and prices, making some fields unprofitable to drill. Exxon had been the sole holdout during the current crisis, having not revised anything lower until now.

Exxon’s last significant reserves revision was in 2016, when it removed some of its oil-sands assets in Canada from its books, though it later added some of these back.

Exxon is currently undergoing its annual “very rigorous” process of reviewing the value of assets and should present the results to the board by November, Senior Vice President Neil Chapman said during a call with analysts July 31. While Exxon doesn’t publish commodity price forecasts, unlike European peers, Chapman said they’re “consistent with the range of third-party estimates.”