SALOMON SMITH BARNEY FORECASTS 3.8 PERCENT RISE IN E&P SPENDING IN 2003

Hart's Petroleum Finance Week, December, 2002

Following on the heels of this month's Lehman Brothers exploration and production spending survey, Salomon Smith Barney released its own study showing that worldwide E&P spending is forecast to rise 3.8 percent in 2003.

As in the Lehman survey, Salomon Smith Barney found that domestic spending will be the weak point. U.S. spending is projected to rise 0.1 percent, Canadian spending 5.7 percent and international spending 4.9 percent. The weak U.S. projection, relative to Canada, is due primarily to spending cuts by the energy merchants, Salomon said.

The average oil and natural gas price assumptions used for budgeting are $23.43 a barrel and $3.54 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) of natural gas. Higher prices could mean more spending--the gas price required to...

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