Featured U.S. Shale Is Immune To An Oil Price Crash In 2017

Source: U.S. Shale Is Immune To An Oil Price Crash In 2017 | OilPrice.com

Since OPEC announced the production cut deal at the end of November, industry analysts have been warning that rising production from producers outside the deal—U.S. shale in particular—is effectively capping the oil price gains from that agreement.

Four months after the OPEC/NOPEC deal took effect, oil prices droppedto the levels preceding the agreement, amid concerns over still stubbornly high inventories and rising U.S. output.
. . .
Since December 2016, oil output in the Lower 48 states, minus the Gulf of Mexico, has been on a continuous expansion, with 430,000 bpd growth so far. The growth from the average level in the fourth quarter of 2016 to May 2017 is around 340,000 bpd, Rystad said.

According to the EIA data, Lower 48 states’ field production of crude oil has been growing each week since early December, right after OPEC said it would curb supply to try to balance the market and lift the price of oil.
. . .
The U.S. operators have built up a new inventory of drilled uncompleted wells (DUCs) as the rig count recovery has been outpacing completion growth since the second half of 2016. If the price of oil was to crash to US$40 or even US$30 per barrel, a major part of those DUCs would still be commercially viable for completion, due to the fact that “drilling costs are sunk”, Rystad said.​

Interesting times we live in.
Bob Wilson

 

But it also means the cat is out of the bag for EV performance. The Honda Civic was hobbled because the motor was built into the flywheel instead of clutched down stream. As part of the transmission, it looks like the 'blue motion' that became the Hyundai architecture ... not that I like a stepped transmission.

What I see is clever use of power motors and variable intake valve tricks engines to make future cars more efficient with better performance from the motors. The motors don't have to be all that powerful to make a significant improvement in performance.

On a slightly different challenge, my understanding is significant arms sales were signed recently with Saudi Arabia. How will they pay for these weapons with oil so cheap?

Bob Wilson