Will Permian Basin Drillers Maintain Their Scorching Hot Pace in the Second Quarter?

The Permian Basin has been heating up over the past year as drillers pour billions of dollars into the legacy oil play to lock up land and drill new wells. These investments are fueling big-time growth for producers even in the current low oil price environment thanks to the excellent returns drillers can earn on new wells. That trend isn't expected to abate during the second quarter, which has Permian producers primed to deliver strong results once again. Here's a quick look at what to expect from some of the top players when they report second-quarter results later this week.

Last quarter analysts were a bit underwhelmed by Pioneer Natural Resources' (NYSE: PXD) guidance for the second quarter. That's because the Permian driller anticipates production coming in between 254,000 to 259,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/D), which was below the consensus that it would produce 262,000 BOE/D. However, the company noted that this was due to the timing of when it expects to complete new wells, and not due to weaker well productivity. That said, Pioneer has a history of outperforming its guidance, which was the case last quarter when output came in 1,000 BOE/D above the top end of its guidance range, enabling the company to earn $0.25 per share, which was $0.09 per share above expectations. Because of that, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the company outpace expectations again when it reports its second-quarter earnings this week.

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Source: Fool.com