US energy firms unfazed by plunging oil prices

Chicago

US ENERGY companies are shrugging off a 24 per cent plunge in oil prices, confident they can adapt and still make money.

Amid predictions that the biggest drop in crude prices since the global financial crisis six years ago will choke off cash flow and slow drilling, industry leaders are reassuring investors they still have the means to return ample profits.

Improved technology is bringing down costs and most shale producers operate in multiple basins, allowing them to shift work to the most profitable sites.

The industry is used to price swings, Halliburton Co chairman and chief executive officer David Lesar said in an interview in hi…