U.S. oil producer ConocoPhillips Co. has begun to bring production back online after curtailments in the wake of the price crash pushed it to a $1 billion loss in the second quarter.

The company—the U.S.’s largest independent producer by market cap—was one of the first to cut back on output as crude prices crashed earlier this year, shutting production across its operations in Canada and the U.S.

ConocoPhillips blamed the production cuts and weak prices for its heavy loss in the three months to June. But with oil prices having now bounced back, it is joining other producers in gradually turning the taps back on. It said it had already restored output in Alaska and expected to fully bring back production in the rest of the U.S. by September.

“We are monitoring the market closely to develop a view around the timing and path of price recovery and to guide our corresponding actions,” said Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips CEO. “As the market strengthened late in the second quarter, we began reversing our second-quarter curtailments and ramping up production across the Lower 48, Alaska and Canada.”

The company reported a quarterly loss of $944 million, excluding exceptional items. The figure compared with a $1.1 billion profit in the same period last year and was worse than the $610 million loss analysts had pencilled in. Total revenues of about $4 billion were down by half on last year.

Shares fell more than 7% in early trading on July 30 to about $37.

The grim results underlined the malaise in the sector, which has been ravaged by a collapse in prices triggered by a Saudi-Russia price war, which sent supply surging, and by the coronavirus pandemic, which slashed global demand by a third.

US oil prices plunged into negative territory for the first time ever in April. But they have now bounced back to about $40/bbl.

American oil output collapsed at the peak of the crisis from more than 13 million bbl/d to less than 10 million bbl/d, but it has recovered to about 11 million bbl/d, where analysts expect it to remain for the rest of the year.

On a visit on July 29 to Texas, the most prolific U.S. oil-producing state, President Donald Trump heralded the recovery of activity in the industry. “We’re OK now. We’re back,” he said. But few now expect the country to return to its previous levels of production.

ConocoPhillips produced 981,000 boe/d in the second quarter, excluding Libyan production, after a cut of 225,000 barrels. That left it down by more than 300,000 boe/d compared to the same period last year.

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