Earlier this month, a senior executive from Pioneer Natural Resources predicted higher oil prices later this year. Demand for crude was rising strongly, executive VP Beth McDonald told Reuters last week, but supply was playing catch-up and without much enthusiasm.
Crude oil production from Argentina’s burgeoning shale patch, Vaca Muerta, could surge in the coming years and top 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the decade – but only if takeaway capacity and rig availability do not limit growth.
The much-touted second shale boom has lately been getting a reality check as equipment demand declines sharply, a worrying sign that drilling in U.S. shale energy regions is leveling off.
Last December I published an article on Oilprice discussing why I thought land drilling contractors would start to rally after the first of the year.
After a decade of exponential growth, the U.S. shale patch is no longer the swing producer on the global markets. That role is now back in the hands of OPEC and its largest and most influential members in the Middle East, analysts and industry executives say.