By Vallari Srivastava
April 30 (Reuters) – Oil and gas producer ConocoPhillips on Thursday forecast a lower annual output and excluded Qatar from its near-term outlook, citing disruption to its operations in the Middle East due to the Iran conflict.
ConocoPhillips is a partner in QatarEnergy’s liquefied natural gas export plant, one of the world’s largest producers of the superchilled gas.
Iranian attacks on the facility have knocked out about a sixth of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, worth about $20 billion a year, with repairs expected to take three to five years.
Output from ConocoPhillips’ investments in Qatar, which stood at roughly $1.8 billion as of March 31, accounted for 4% of the company’s total production in 2025.
ConocoPhillips now expects 2026 production to be between 2.29 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and 2.325, compared with its previous forecast of 2.33 mmboepd to 2.36 mmboepd.
It also forecast current-quarter production of 2.185 mmboepd to 2.215 mmboepd.
ConocoPhillips said the annual outlook reflects a reduction of about 20,000 boed linked to the exclusion of Qatar volumes, and another 15,000 boed impact from higher royalty rates at its Surmont oil sands project in Canada.
The shale producer expects annual capital expenditures to be between $12 billion and $12.5 billion. It had previously forecast $12 billion.
Capital One Securities analyst Phillips Johnston said the lower production outlook “comes as no surprise … but we don’t think investors were anticipating a $250 million increase to the (capital) budget.”
Shares of the company fell nearly 3% in morning trading.
During the first quarter, the Houston-based company’s average realized prices dropped 6% to $50.36 per barrel of oil equivalent, due to weaker gas prices.
Its net income fell to $2.18 billion, or $1.78 per share, for the three months ended March 31, from $2.85 billion, or $2.23 per share, a year earlier.
(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
