Many of the E&Ps that showed up for EnerCom’s The Oil & Gas Conference talked acquisitions, bucking production trends and clipping spending.

Clayton Williams Energy Inc. (CWEI) said it is working to close two deals, one in the Permian Basin, before the end of 2015. Other E&Ps are marketing or considering the sale of upstream and midstream assets.

The conference’s speakers mostly said they would press on, continuing to spend and produce more.

Ethan H. Bellamy, senior research analyst, Baird Equity Research, likened oil and gas producers to the relentless, self-destructive cowboy pilot in the film Dr. Strangelove.

“They will outspend cash flow in 2016, which should drag out a North American oil price recovery,” Bellamy wrote at the end of the four-day conference. Last November Bellamy compared the U.S. oil scenario to a prisoner’s dilemma, a scenario that pits the rewards of self-interest against the rewards of cooperation.

“What could reverse the oil trend? Better-than-expected global oil demand, a more rapid decline in non-OPEC, non-U.S. production,” he said.

Production cuts by Saudi Arabia, a failed Iranian nuclear deal and or a cold winter could also tip the scales.

“Without some or all of these factors, North American oil and gas fundamentals should remain very slack,” he said.

At the EnerCom conference in Denver, several companies laid out production and spending plans or outlined potential deal activity.

Many are set on making deals for non-core assets. Clayton Williams is already moving to cut loose its non-core assets.

Mel Riggs, president, said the company has several assets outside of its Permian holdings that should be attractive to buyers. He also noted that the company sold property in Eagle Ford earlier in 2015 for $27 million.

“We will continue to look at divesting non-core assets and continue to add liquidity and create capital to drill with,” Riggs said in a video of the Aug. 17 presentation. “We’re working on couple of deals right now, one in the Permian and one in another area that we hope to get closed sometime before the end of the year.”

The company’s presentation said it owns 170,000 net acres in the Permian Basin and Giddings areas of the Eagle Ford.

The company may use private equity to fund the drilling of wells or use a few non-core asset sales “up its sleeve that could improve liquidity significantly without affecting estimated inventory,” said Ryan Oatman, analyst, Cowen & Co.

“The company may seek external capital to keep these rigs running,” he said.

Clayton Williams has two rigs running and wants three by the second quarter of 2016 to hold its Delaware and extensional Eagle Ford acreage.

Companies such as Cimarex Energy Co. (XEC) have run into hurdles trying to buy assets. The company said Wolfcamp acreage prices are too high, especially with commodity prices so low.

The company was recently outbid for Wolfcamp land, which fetched $4,200 per acre to Cimarex’ $1,500-$2,000 per acre offer ̶ an indication that the purchaser was willing to pay for a commodity upside, Oatman said.

Other buyers include private company Fifth Creek Energy. Fifth Creek is seeking $500 million to $1.5 billion deals with potential extra strategies to include an IPO. The company has 200,000 net acres in the southern Denver-Julesburg (D-J) Basin.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. (WLL) will be looking to cut in 2016, saying its game plan is “lower for longer” in the current commodity environment. It also appears it will further stall a sale of any midstream assets.

The company said it wants to reduce leverage by divesting non-core areas outside of the Bakken and Niobrara as well as select midstream assets.

“Whiting indicated it would sell its midstream assets for ‘a great price,’ which might suggest a lower probability of a sale there,” he said.

Whiting plans to keep production flat in 2016, though that’s against a backdrop of record second-quarter 2015 results. A company-best 170,245 net barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) was pumped in the second quarter of 2015, exceeding its guidance despite selling assets with 8,300 boe/d of production.

In the Williston Basin, enhanced completion techniques upped Whiting volumes by 40% in the first 12 months at a cost increase of 12-15%. In the D-J Basin, the company said its Redtail acreage is efficient enough to survive at $30 oil.

Whiting said it would spend within cash flow of about $1 billion while selling assets with high lease operating expenses (LOE) and continue to drive down operations costs, he said.

Bill Barrett Corp. (BBG) is also looking for ways to save money or generate it through divestitures. The company’s flagship asset, the D-J Basin, it projects production will increase by more than 60% in 2015 and 25% growth in 2016.

Overall production growth for the company will be up to 15%.

Barrett said wells in the basin cost $6.25 million and that it will decrease capex in 2016. Its spending will fall to $250 million at the midpoint, down from capex of $335 million in 2015.

The company is in solid shape financially, with $450 million in liquidity, including $101 million in cash. It also has hedges on 80% of 2015 oil volumes at $90 per barrel (bbl) and 2016 hedges at $80/bbl. The company is also considering running a single rig instead of two in its capital plan.

Other companies are interested in trimming production and spending, despite the prevailing uptick in capex.

Oatman said producers appear to be using their 1980s playbook of drilling within cash flow and holding production flat while some E&Ps are using other people’s money to hold acreage.

“Still others believe that consolidation needs to happen to reduce G&A loads and that equity prices are such that cash deals do not make sense,” he said. “Peer-to-peer deals seem more attractive to some than corporate deals.”

Continental Resources Inc. (CLR) made it clear they will stay within cash flow into 2016. In the Bakken and Eagle Ford, the company anticipates a 700 Mbbl/d drop in production in the next 12 months.

And Energen Corp. (EGN) said it should be able to meet its obligations and hold acreage with capital spending of less than $250 million compared in $1.1 billion in 2015.

Bellamy said E&Ps still appear confident, even as borrowing base redeterminations are around the corner in October.

“We did not sense enough fear from producers at EnerCom relative to the poor commodity price landscape,” he said. “And we think maximum balance sheet pain still lies ahead, if not in October then in April.”