Reports of Shale’s Death Were Greatly Exaggerated
ConocoPhillips buying Concho caps a flurry of deals that show there’s life in the industry even with oil at around $40 a barrel.
Looking up.
Photographer: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Remember seven months ago, when a three-way supply war between Saudi Arabia, Russia and the U.S. was about to deal a mortal blow to America’s shale oil industry? Whatever happened with that?
All the evidence of late is that there’s life in the oil patch yet. Production from Texas’s Permian Basin in September was 4.49 million barrels a day. That’s down from a peak of 4.9 million in March, to be sure, but higher than in any month prior to September 2019 — and the cut is considerably smaller than those enacted by Saudi Arabia and Russia since they struck an agreement to bring the oil market back from the dead in April.