Oil Companys and CapEx Plans (WSJ)

Oil Cos Avoid Budget Cuts Despite Credit, Price Fears - Survey:
"For most energy companies, however, cheaper oil and tighter credit won't result in major adjustments, the survey found. Only 8% of CFOs admitted that staff cuts are likely, and most companies said they plan to hold spending on oilfield services steady, with some even looking to increase their budgets, Dewhurst said.

That's particularly the case for the largest producers, he said. These sprawling multinationals, such as Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), tend to have healthy cash flows and conservative oil price forecasts. Their projects are mostly financed without borrowing and are expected to be profitable even at oil prices below $40 a barrel. It would, therefore, take a prolonged downturn to force the industry to scale back in any meaningful way, Dewhurst said."

This is not exactly what I expected, but what might tie my thoughts together with this article is that the spending cuts are likely to be concentrated in the US where most of the smaller operators do their work . Smaller upstream producers do not always have the cash to maintain a development budget as well as maintenance budgets in a lower price environment.