油价暴跌导致美国诸多低产油井关闭

Analysts examining the effect of the oil price’s precipitous decline on companies should spare a thought for stripper well operators, the mom-and-pop businesses that coax the last trickles of crude from long-ago drilled holes.

那些研究油价大幅下挫对企业影响的分析人士们，应该关注一下那些低产油井(stripper well)运营商们了，他们一般都是小作坊式经营，做的就是从很久以前钻探的油井中采出最后一批原油。

Although tiny in isolation — the average stripper well yields less than 2 b/d — there are more than 400,000 such wells in the US supplying about 11 per cent of US oil production. They produced 700,000 barrels per day in 2012, the latest year for which data are available — as much as the Opec member Qatar, according to data from the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission.

尽管它们各自分散，而且不成规模（平均日产量不到2桶），但在美国有超过40万口这样的油井，占美国石油产量的11%左右。根据州际油气协定委员会(Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission)的最新数据，2012年这些低产井的日产量为70万桶，与石油输出国组织(Opec，简称：欧佩克)成员国卡塔尔的产量相当。

Now, with the price of US crude below $60 per barrel — down 46 per cent from levels six months ago — some operators plan to idle their stripper wells. Widespread closures could help balance the oversupplied global oil market and stabilise prices.

如今，随着美国油价跌破每桶60美元，较6个月前下跌46%，一些运营商已计划把他们的低产井闲置起来。大量这类油井关闭，可能有助于平衡供应过度的全球石油市场并稳定油价。

Melvin Moran, whose company owns stripper wells in Oklahoma, said it costs thousands of dollars a year to keep one pumping.

梅尔文•莫兰(Melvin Moran)的公司拥有俄克拉荷马州的低产井，他表示，每年需要数千美元来维持一口低产井的运营。

Mark Thomas has two companies that operate 100 stripper wells in Arkansas state with total production of 300 b/d. “Some of those will be shut in, probably within 90 days,” he said last week.

马克•托马斯(Mark Thomas)有两家公司，在阿肯色州运营着100口低产井，总产量为每日300桶。他上周表示：“一些油井可能会在90天内被关闭。”

Mr Thomas said it now costs “in the “high $30s” per barrel to lift oil from the ground. The Lion Oil refinery near his wells in El Dorado, Arkansas last week offered $41 per barrel for extra heavy crude and $52.25 for sweet crude. This suggests razor-thin profit margins for local producers.

托马斯表示，现在石油开采成本在每桶“近40美元”。在他位于阿肯色州埃尔多拉多的油井附近的炼油厂Lion Oil，上周对超重原油的报价为每桶41美元，轻质原油为52.25美元。这表明当地产油商的利润率极薄。

Oil analysts have been focused on new investment, such as shale drilling, as they handicap which producers will cut back. They say that because stripper wells’ expenditures are mainly operating costs such as electricity and maintenance, their owners are less sensitive to oil prices than companies exploring for oil.

石油分析师们表示，由于低产井的支出主要为运营成本，例如电力和维护，相对于石油勘探企业，这些油井的所有者对于油价不那么敏感。

Operators will decide “whether they really want or need the cash flow,” said Trisha Curtis of the Energy Policy Research Foundation in Washington. Like bigger producers, stripper well operators need to be convinced lower prices will persist before idling production, said Michael Wittner, oil analyst at Société Générale. Simply shutting a well can cost several thousands dollars, so some wells will keep flowing, he said.

华盛顿能源政策研究基金会( Energy Policy Research Foundation)的特丽莎•柯蒂斯(Trisha Curtis)表示，运营商们将决定“它们是否真的需要现金流。”兴业银行(Société Générale)石油分析师迈克尔•威特纳(Michael Wittner)表示，与规模较大的生产商一样，低产井运营商只有确信油价将长期低迷，才会闲置产能。他表示，关闭一口油井可能会带来数千美元的损失，因此一些油井将继续运营。

But stripper wells “operate on the lower edge of profitability,” according to the IOGCC.

但州际油气协定委员会称，低产油井的“利润率处于较低水平”。