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Enjoy it while it lasts. America's largest shale plays are in decline. More worryingly, shale oil producers have never been profitable. They lose money consi

Enjoy it while it lasts. America's largest shale plays are in decline. More worryingly, shale oil producers have never been profitable. They lose money consistently year after year, to the tune of hundreds of billions pf dollars total since 2010 [1]. The industry is entirely funded by revolving and growing debt. Production is simply not sustainable at current prices, however oil prices that do make production profitable can rapidly damage the economy, further imperiling debt-funded exploration for new reserves, which is urgently needed to prevent the world from running right the fuck out of oil. That's the scary reality of our balls-to-the-wall extractive economy. 1 - https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Wall-Street-Loses-Faith-In-Shale.html https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Wall-Street-Loses...

Fjolsvith 8y ago
With the US having the largest oil reserves in the world and half of that being shale [1], I doubt we are going to see an implosion. Besides, Big Oil Companies are getting into the game with their massive war chests [2], so while the little companies are going under, the big ones will take over and keep the crude flowing. 1. https://money.cnn.com/2016/07/05/investing/us-untapped-oil/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2016/07/05/investing/us-untapped-oil/i... 2. https://www.investors.com/news/oil-companies-target-oil-pipeline-capacity-us-shale-oil-surge/ https://www.investors.com/news/oil-companies-target-oil-pipe...
- nate_meurer 8y ago
  The only way to avoid an implosion is to find a way to make shale oil profitable. Given that no one's been able to do that, after a couple decades of trying, I'm deeply skeptical that the big boys will do any better. I think they're desperate, after cutting a trillion dollars in capex on conventional exploration since the crash. Meanwhile, shale is sitting on massive a debt bubble that won't be payed off with modest profitability. They need to make big profits to dig out of that.

Fjolsvith 8y ago

With the US having the largest oil reserves in the world and half of that being shale [1], I doubt we are going to see an implosion. Besides, Big Oil Companies are getting into the game with their massive war chests [2], so while the little companies are going under, the big ones will take over and keep the crude flowing. 1. https://money.cnn.com/2016/07/05/investing/us-untapped-oil/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2016/07/05/investing/us-untapped-oil/i... 2. https://www.investors.com/news/oil-companies-target-oil-pipeline-capacity-us-shale-oil-surge/ https://www.investors.com/news/oil-companies-target-oil-pipe...

nate_meurer 8y ago
The only way to avoid an implosion is to find a way to make shale oil profitable. Given that no one's been able to do that, after a couple decades of trying, I'm deeply skeptical that the big boys will do any better. I think they're desperate, after cutting a trillion dollars in capex on conventional exploration since the crash. Meanwhile, shale is sitting on massive a debt bubble that won't be payed off with modest profitability. They need to make big profits to dig out of that.