Occidental Petroleum Corp. plans to keep its production steady even as oil prices have surged in recent weeks above $90 a barrel.
“We don’t increase oil significantly in a market where we don’t see the balance,” Occidental Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub said during an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Only in a market where we see balance would we increase our production — and even then it would be at a moderate pace.”
Oil producers have learned lessons from past mistakes, Hollub said, and will be careful this time around to not flood the market with crude simply because prices rise.
“There is a lot more discipline,” she said. “How to do it better and not get into an oversupplied market.”
Hollub said she hadn’t seen evidence of demand destruction yet. Even if oil prices do top $100 a barrel, she doesn’t expect them to stay there long enough to start eroding demand.
“Even in a recession, I don’t think demand would drop so significantly that it would drop prices,” she said.
