Big oil is investing more in US shale

Bloomberg

Big oil is investing more in US shale, not less, after the recent tumble in crude prices. The US shale sector has helped boost American production to an average of 10.9 million barrels a day this year, the most on record. Output is forecast to grow a further 11 percent next year, according the Energy Information Administration.
ConocoPhillips said it’s spending half its 2019 budget in the continental US, while Chevron Corp is investing more at home than it’s done for more than a decade, with $3.6 billion going to the Permian Basin alone. Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Hess Corp, both global operators, plan to increase spending on their American assets more than 40 percent.
Oil’s recent collapse caused “some different allocation going on within the budget,” Conoco Chief Executive Off-icer Ryan Lance said on Bloomberg TV. “We’re putting more towards our US unconventional position,” he said, referring to shale.
Production growth “slows down at $50 but I don’t think it stops at $50, and it certainly continues if prices get back to $60,” Lance said. Skeptics thought shale “wouldn’t last long, but it’s here, it’s a huge resource and it’s going to be resilient and long lasting.”