Organization and Nature Of Operations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Organization and Nature of Operations

Organization and Nature of Operations

Pioneer is a Delaware corporation whose common stock is listed and traded on the NYSE. The Company is a large independent oil and gas exploration and production company that explores for, develops and produces oil, NGLs and gas in the Midland Basin in West Texas.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a severe worldwide economic downturn, significantly disrupting the demand for oil, throughout the world, and created significant volatility, uncertainty and turmoil in the oil and gas industry. The decrease in demand for oil combined with pressures on the global supply-demand balance for oil and related products, resulted in oil prices declining significantly beginning in late February 2020. Since mid-2020, oil prices improved, with demand steadily increasing despite the uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 variants, which have continued to inhibit a full global demand recovery. In addition, worldwide oil inventories are, from a historical perspective, very low and supply increases from OPEC, Russia and other oil producing nations are not expected to be sufficient to meet forecasted oil demand growth in 2022 and 2023, with many OPEC countries not able to produce at their OPEC agreed upon quota levels due to their lack of capital investments over the past few years in developing incremental oil supplies. Global oil price levels will ultimately depend on various factors and consequences beyond the Company's control, such as (i) the effectiveness of responses to combat the COVID-19 virus and their impact on domestic and worldwide demand, (ii) the ability of OPEC, Russia and other oil producing nations to manage the global oil supply, (iii) the timing and supply impact of any Iranian sanction relief on Iran's ability to export oil, (iv) additional actions by businesses and governments in response to the pandemic, (v) the global supply chain constraints associated with manufacturing delays, and (vi) political stability of oil consuming countries.

The Company continues to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company and may modify its response as the impact of COVID-19 continues to evolve.