US Frackers Return to Haunt OPEC’s Pricing Strategy
- US crude juggernaut adds equivalent of new Venezuela to supply
- OPEC, allies have restricted supply in response to price drop
A drilling rig in the Bakken Formation, North Dakota.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
OPEC’s one-time nemesis — US shale — is rearing its head just months after the sector was all but written off as a threat to the cartel’s sway over worldwide oil markets.
Drillers from the Permian Basin in West Texas to the Bakken Shale of North Dakota have ramped up oil production well beyond what analysts foresaw, pushing output to a record just as OPEC and its allies put the brakes on supplies in a bid to arrest price declines.