As U.S. oil rises toward $100 a barrel, producers in some high-cost shale basins are buying properties and adding rigs and frack crews in places that fell silent when prices crashed early in the pandemic two years ago, Reuters reports.
New activity is stirring in secondary oilfields such as Haynesville Shale in north Louisiana, Colorado’s DJ Basin, Wyoming’s Powder River, and North Dakota’s Bakken shale. U.S. producers are cranking up spending at double-digit rates as fuel demand has soared and fears have waned that OPEC will again punish them by flooding the market with crude that is cheaper to produce.
Some executives say current high prices and relatively low service costs make production economics the best in years. Firms are buying U.S. oil, pipeline and gas processing rivals in a bet that higher prices will more than cover rising costs of labor and equipment. Read the entire story.
