Opinion
Why U.S. Oil and Gas Producers Aren’t Solving the Energy Crisis
— March 15, 2022

By Paul Tice
By Paul Tice
The total U.S. oil rig count has bounced back, but only to roughly 75% of the recent peak in March 2020. Major U.S. shale producers, particularly ones in the Permian Basin of Texas, have a break-even oil price close to $30 a barrel, so why isn’t American supply responding to price signals from the global market?
First and foremost, U.S. shale got a wake-up call about its business model in 2020. That’s when the combination of an OPEC+ oil-market-share battle and pandemic lockdowns briefly turned crude oil prices negative and decimated the energy sector, driving more than 100 North American oil and gas companies into bankruptcy by year end.
Read the full Wall Street Journal article.
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Paul Tice is an Adjunct Professor of Finance at NYU Stern.