Oil below $75/bbl may slow down spending, Baker Hughes says

HOUSTON (Bloomberg) -- Baker Hughes Inc. said oil prices below $75/bbl for a few months may cause energy companies to pull back spending on exploration and production.

West Texas Intermediate, a U.S. benchmark for oil, fell below $80/bbl for the first time since June 2012 as a North American production boom met with lower forecast demand growth. Brent crude, the global benchmark, reached an almost four-year low of $82.60/bbl on Oct. 16.

Baker Hughes’s customers don’t believe oil prices will stay low, Martin Craighead, chairman and CEO of the Houston-based company, told analysts Oct. 16 on an earnings conference call.

“The returns are still quite attractive,” Craighead said. “Right now it’s full steam ahead.”

Baker Hughes reported third-quarter adjusted profit that missed analysts’ estimates. Its shares tumbled 9.8% to $48.39 at 10:38 a.m. in New York, the biggest intraday drop since November 2011.

If U.S. oil prices stay below $80 for a quarter, exploration and production companies “are going to sober up,” T. Boone Pickens, chairman and CEO of BP Capital LLC, said in an Oct. 9 interview. “It’s getting their attention.”