US companies don’t have capacity to quickly restore oil output to pre-pandemic levels despite lucrative market prices which are at their highest levels since 2008, said the CEO of US oil company Occidental Petroleum Corp. Vicki Hollub.

The current situation is extremely difficult for the oil industry, as companies need to respond to market deficits, but this is not possible, as the pandemic has seriously affected supply chains,Hollub said.

It is possible to increase oil production only in the Permian shale basin. It is the largest in the United States, oil production here has returned to the peak levels that were set before the pandemic, the head of Occidental notes. Among other factors that constrain output growth Hollub called the lack of labor and commodities shortages.

The pandemic has completely changed the energy industry. If earlier everything was focused on increasing oil production, now the main thing is the rational use of capital, Hollub noted. Companies are forced to focus on paying off debt, paying dividends and limiting spending.

Occidental Petroleum announced in February that it plans to raise its quarterly dividend from $0.01 per share to $0.13. Occidental's CEO said that now that oil prices have risen, the company needs to return money to shareholders in the form of dividends or share buybacks so as not to incur losses when the price of oil drops to $40 a barrel.