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Canadian Natural to Spend More on Drilling Amid Higher Oil

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For the second half of 2016, Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNQ - Free Report) has decided to spend much more than planned earlier for drilling activities following the strengthening of oil prices.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell to a 12-year low mark of $26.21 per barrel in mid-February. From there, this commodity settled at $47.98 each barrel yesterday, reflecting a jump as high as over 83%. With this recovery, the leading independent exploration and production company will likely deploy $50 million more than what it intended before for activities like drilling 123 new heavy crude wells, 5 new light oil wells and 11 thermal crude wells.

Canadian Natural is not the only firm to increase spending with oil walking on the bullish path. Devon Energy Corporation (DVN - Free Report) is among the handful of North American players to spend more capital this year.

Calgary, Alberta-based Canadian Natural Resources is engaged in the acquisition, development and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas properties. It has a broad portfolio of low-risk exploration and development projects that yield long-term volume growth at above-average rates.

However, Canadian Natural pursues long-term oil projects, which call for large capital outlays and several years of development before any cash flow is realized. Therefore, cost and time overrun in the ongoing projects have a negative impact on the stock’s performance.

CDN NTRL RSRCS Price

Currently, the company carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), which implies that the stock will perform in line with the broader U.S. equity market over the next one to three months.

Some better-ranked players in the same space include Africa Oil Corp (AOIFF - Free Report) and Baytex Energy Corp. (BTE - Free Report) . Both players carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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