Cenovus Energy Cuts 2015 Capital Spending Budget On Lower Oil Prices

(RTTNews) - Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE, CVE.TO) said it is further reducing its 2015 capital spending in order to preserve cash and maintain the strength of its balance sheet.

The company has identified about C$700 million in additional capital expenditures originally planned for 2015 that can be deferred until crude oil prices recover.

In December 2014, Cenovus announced a 2015 capital spending budget of between C$2.5 billion and C$2.7 billion, an approximate 15 percent reduction from 2014 levels.

Since December, crude oil prices have continued to weaken and the company anticipates prices may remain low through 2015. As a result, Cenovus has revised its 2015 capital budget and is now targeting capital spending this year of between C$1.8 billion and C$2.0 billion.

Cenovus said that in the coming weeks, it intends to realign its workforce based on its revised spending plans. Where work has been stopped or deferred, the company plans to reassign employees to core business areas and intends to begin reducing the size of its contract workforce.

In addition to the spending reductions, the company is continuing to pursue opportunities it has identified to target between C$400 million and C$500 million in sustained annual operating and capital cost reductions in the years ahead.