- Laredo Petroleum (LPI -17.8%) plunges after reporting weaker than expected Q1 earnings and Royal Dutch Shell's (RDS.A, RDS.B) termination of a crude oil purchase agreement with the company.
- LPI says the Shell contract is under litigation but the termination will reduce aggregate Q2 forecast crude oil price realizations from 95% of WTI to 91%; the company estimates ~70% of its anticipated crude oil production for the remainder of 2018 is still protected from the Midland basis differential.
- On the plus side, LPI says it produced a company record 63,314 boe/day during Q1 and reduced unit cash costs by 4% Y/Y to $8.74/boe.
- LPI raises guidance for FY 2018 total production growth to greater than 12% and reiterates oil production growth guidance of greater than 10% vs. 2017.