<article><p class="lead">ConocoPhillips predicts the recent rally in oil prices to multi-year highs will persist and US oil production will eclipse its pre-pandemic record.</p><p>"I'm pretty bullish," Ryan Lance, chief executive of the leading US independent, said today at the <i>Argus</i> Americas Crude Summit in Houston, Texas. "We'll have some wind in our sails with these commodity prices."</p><p>ConocoPhillips became one of the top producers in the Permian basin with its $8.6bn acquisition of assets from Shell in December, which followed its $9.7bn takeover of Concho Resources in January 2021. Lance said that the US oil industry is ripe for further consolidation — given the large number of players — in order to bring down costs.</p><p>"That doesn't mean the small independents disappear," he added. "There's always going to be a business for those folks that are picking up assets from the large independent companies like mine or the integrated majors."</p><p>Further deals could be struck even with oil prices at elevated levels, the CEO said.</p><p>"Clearly, it's harder to transact at these kinds of prices, but you got to be patient, you got to be persistent," Lance said.</p><p>If oil prices remain at recent levels, that will represent a "tacit call" for US production to increase again.</p><p>US output is set to climb by around 800,000 b/d this year, led by private companies with even some modest growth likely by public independents. And over time, crude output will eclipse the peak set before the Covid-19 pandemic, although the rate of growth will be slower than in previous cycles, Lance said.</p><p class="bylines">By Stephen Cunningham</p></article>
