CALGARY -- Crescent Point Energy Corp. (TSX:CPG) plans a $1.45-billion capital budget for 2015, a 28 per cent decline from last year, as it waits for a recovery in oil and gas prices following the current downturn.
It's the the latest in a series of energy producers and oilfield services companies to reduce spending plans amid a recent plunge in the price of crude oil, which is at 5 1/2-year lows.
A North American benchmark crude future is currently worth less than US$50 a barrel, down from a 2014 high of about US$107 last summer.
The company said Tuesday it expects to increase capital spending when oil prices rebound.
Despite planning to spend less next year, Calgary-based Crescent Point expects to increase average daily production to the equivalent of 152,500 barrels per day.
Crescent Point says its 2015 budget assumes a reduction of service costs, initially by 10 per cent and even more if the low oil price persists.
The company also says about half of its oil and gas production has been hedged, with contracted crude prices averaging above C$90 a barrel of oil and C$3.60 per gigajoule of natural gas.
Crescent Point's monthly dividend of 23 cents per share was unchanged.
The company says approximately $1.27 billion, or 88 percent, of the 2015 capital expenditures budget is expected to be allocated to drilling and completing wells. The remaining $180 million will be allocated to investments in infrastructure, undeveloped land and seismic across all core areas.
About 91 per cent of the budget is allocated to Crescent Point's core areas in southern Saskatechewan and central and souther Alberta. The remaining $135 million will be spent on other propertieis in Alberta, Saskatchewan, North Dakota and Manitoba.
