Citing substantial improvements in efficiency, Irving exploration and production company Pioneer Natural Resources plans to increase its drilling budget as other oil companies are shrinking theirs.

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In a Wednesday afternoon statement, Pioneer said it made $756 million in 2019, a 22 percent drop from the $975 million the company made a year earlier. The company’s annual revenue of $9.3 billion was about flat compared with the $9.4 billion it reported for 2018.

Looking ahead, Pioneer set a 2020 capital expenditure budget of $3.15 billion to $3.45 billion, a slight increase over the $2.8 billion to $3.1 billion set for 2019. The company said 2019 drilling and completions efficiencies increased by more than 30 percent compared with operations in 2017.

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