Shale runs out of survival tricks as Opec ramps up pressure

Houston

IN 2015, the fracking outfits that dot America's oil-rich plains threw everything they had at US$50 a barrel crude. To cope with the 50 per cent price plunge, they laid off thousands of roughnecks, focused their rigs on the biggest gushers only and used cutting-edge technology to squeeze all the oil they could out of every well. Those efforts, to the surprise of many observers, largely succeeded. As of this month, US oil output remained within 4 per cent of a 43-year high.

The problem? Oil is no longer at US$50. It now trades near US$35. For an industry that already was pushing its cost-cutting efforts to the limits, the new declines are a devastating blow. These drillers are "not set up to survive oil in the US$30s", said RT Dukes, a senior upstream analyst for Wood Mackenzie Ltd in Houston.