Fracking Crew Shortage May Push Oil's Biggest Bubble to 2018
- Shortage of workers is testing explorers’ early growth targets
- Oil companies left up to $2.5 billion unspent in first quarter
Citi's Ed Morse Sees Oil Topping $60
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Shale explorers pushing to expand oil production are struggling to find enough fracking crews after thousands of workers were dismissed during the crude rout.
Independent U.S. drillers underspent their first-quarter budgets by as much as $2.5 billion collectively, largely because they couldn’t find enough fracking crews to handle all the planned work, according to Infill Thinking LLC, a research and consulting firm focused on oilfield services and exploration. If the scarcity holds, output increases planned for this summer may get pushed into 2018, creating an unanticipated production bulge with “scary” implications for oil prices, said Joseph Triepke, Infill’s founder.