Despite providing most of the growth in global supply over the last decade or so, U.S. shale producers are subject to the effects of the whims of OPEC+, and Saudi Arabia in particular. Their decision to rapidly unwind previous output cuts has put over 2 mm BOPD on the market in a very short period, and resulted in a global stock build that’s just knocked the stuffing out of oil prices.
In the latest edition of the Numbers Report, we will take a look at some of the most interesting figures put out this week in the energy and metals sectors. Each week we’ll dig into some data and provide a bit of explanation on what drives the numbers.
U.S. shale executives expect to drill significantly fewer wells this year than planned at the start of 2025, as lower oil prices and uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s tariffs hurt profits, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas survey.
In a market increasingly governed by geopolitical tremors and macroeconomic mismatches, crude oil dipping below $65 per barrel seems like a gift to global consumers. But behind that price tag lies a slow-moving crisis for U.S. shale producers, many of whom are being forced to pull back on production, delay capital projects, and recalculate what sustainability means in a low-margin world.
U.S. shale production will likely plateau if WTI oil prices remain in the low $60s per barrel, and decline at prices in the $50s, ConocoPhillips chairman and CEO Ryan Lance said at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday.
The Permian in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico continues to be the most prolific oil and gas producing basin in the United States, accounting for most of the output at the biggest public onshore producers and representing the bulk of oil and gas production at the top 50 producers.
The total number of total active drilling rigs in the United States fell by 8 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published Friday, falling by 57 from in the last six weeks.
I have argued in several Oilprice articles, and most recently in February 2023, that the era of increasing output from shale wells did not have much more room to run absent a price signal that caused a huge increase in drilling.
In 2022, almost 7.8 million barrels of crude oil daily were produced from so-called tight oil resources. The other name for these is unconventional resources. Yet a third and a lot more popular name is shale.
The value and volume of U.S. upstream oil and gas deals fell in the first quarter of the year as companies focused on mature plays and are still watching and waiting for opportunities to snap up undeveloped acreage in the Permian.