Oil CEO: Drop in prices hurt, but didn’t shut production

Head of the oil company Continental Resources, Harold Hamm, said the recent drop in oil prices hurt, but “not to the point we are shutting down.”

The drop in crude oil prices sent shockwaves through the market. Some producers in the U.S. worry that a continual fall in prices would put a hamper on oil operations.

{mosads}In an interview with Platts Energy Week, Hamm said that the drop to below $80 per barrel caused producers to “start adjusting on projects they can push back and don’t have to do for awhile.”

He admitted that the level to which prices dropped may have hurt production for some independent oil producers but that Continental Resources has not stopped any operations.

“Over the last few days a lot a calm has been brought back to the market,” Hamm said on Sunday. “There is no glut of oil in the market.”

On Monday, however, the price of Brent crude oil fell below $80 a barrel, Business Insider reports.

Longer-term, Jeff Currie of Goldman Sachs expects West Texas Intermediate crude to stabilize around $80 a barrel, but added that “uncertainty around the required price to slow down U.S. shale production growth is a key risk to our forecast.”