Stricken US shale producers shift up a gear

New York

FIFTY-STAGE frack jobs. Fifteen-foot cluster spacing. More than 2,000 pounds of proppant concentrate per foot. Top US shale producers are pushing fracking technology to new extremes to get more oil out of their wells, as they weather lower-for-longer oil prices.

While the impact of the techniques may be scarcely noticeable on current US output with so few wells in operation, it could mean that drillers are able to accelerate production more fiercely than ever once prices recover.