- Colorado oil production would sink to 275K bbl/day by 2023, a 54% decline from current projections, if voters approve a ballot measure in November that would ban most new drilling in the DJ Basin, according to an analysis by S&P Global Platts Analytics.
- Operators such as Anadarko Petroleum (APC), PDC Energy (PDCE +0.8%) and Noble Energy (NBL +2.2%) could soften the blow by ramping up production in their Permian acreage, but 'pure play' producers such as Extraction Oil & Gas (XOG -1.3%) would be forced to expand outside of their comfort zone, the report says.
- Baird analyst Ethan Bellamy says the Colorado measure could impact as much as 550K bbl/day of production five years out, given a current best-case production outlook of 800K bbl/day sinking to 250K if the measure passes.
- The conventional wisdom among analysts is that the ballot initiative will fail, but Axios reports internal polling conducted on behalf of the state’s oil industry and not previously disclosed shows the initiative is likely to pass with ~60% support.