Murphy Oil's 2023 CAPEX plan is expected to be in the range of $875 million to $1.025 billion. Full year 2023 production is expected to be in the range of 175.5 to 183.5 MBOEPD, consisting of approximately 99 MBOPD oil and 109 MBOEPD liquids volumes, equating to 55 percent oil and 61 percent liquids volumes, respectively. This reflects a 10 percent increase in oil volumes and 7 percent increase in total volumes from full year 2022.

Production for first quarter 2023 is estimated to be in the range of 161 to 169 MBOEPD with 92 MBOPD, or 56 percent, oil volumes. This range is impacted by planned downtime of approximately 7.1 MBOEPD, consisting of 2.0 MBOEPD of operated offshore downtime, 2.5 MBOEPD of non-operated offshore downtime and 2.6 MBOEPD of onshore downtime. Both production and CAPEX guidance ranges exclude Gulf of Mexico NCI.

Roger W. Jenkins, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“Consistent with prior years, our capital spending program is more heavily weighted to the first half of 2023, enabling Murphy to maximize annual production and free cash flow. Further, we expect lower capital spending than in 2022, while increasing overall production and more notably, oil production as compared to 2022. We continue to maintain capital discipline across the business and execute on our capital allocation framework to further strengthen our balance sheet and provide enhanced shareholder returns.”

2023 Capital Expenditure Guidance

Murphy plans to spend approximately $335 million of 2023 CAPEX in the Gulf of Mexico for development drilling and field development projects, including executing three operated subsea tiebacks and three non-operated subsea tiebacks, and advancing the non-operated St. Malo waterflood project prior to its completion in early 2024.

Murphy has allocated $325 million of 2023 CAPEX to the Eagle Ford Shale. This includes $250 million to drill 25 wells and bring online 35 operated wells, as well as drill 11 wells and bring online 17 non-operated wells. The remaining $75 million is allotted to support field development.

The company plans to spend $130 million of its 2023 CAPEX in Canada onshore. Approximately $100 million is allocated to the Tupper Montney to drill 14 wells and bring online 16 operated wells, and the remaining $30 million supports field development in Tupper Montney and Kaybob Duvernay.

Approximately $30 million of CAPEX is allocated to Canada offshore, with $18 million for non-operated Hibernia development drilling, as well as $12 million for non-operated Terra Nova for field development ahead of returning to production in the second quarter 2023.

Murphy has allocated $100 million to its 2023 exploration program, with the majority of spending designated for drilling operated exploration wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

Other capital of approximately $30 million, or 3 percent of CAPEX, consists primarily of capitalized interest costs and corporate CAPEX.

Roger W. Jenkins added:
“Along with supporting an increased quarterly dividend to our valued shareholders, Murphy is positioned for another successful year with capital spending primarily allocated to high-returning, oil-weighted Gulf of Mexico and Eagle Ford Shale assets. At current commodity prices, our 2023 capital and production plans position us to progress into Murphy 2.0 of our capital allocation framework, which allocates 75 percent of adjusted free cash flow to debt reduction and 25 percent to enhanced shareholder returns.”

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