“Don’t forget....depending on the field , shale is only profitable in and above the $50 - $80 bbl range.”
A complete fabrication.
The operating cost to continue pumping shale oil and be economically profitable is far far below that.
You are explaining new capital drilling instead, and the variability is quite a lot larger than the number you quoted, too.
I have been in the oil industry for 35 years, how about you?
Now that you made me look it up..... and btw, the $50- $80 range is widely accepted by API too.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-17/oil-is-cheap-but-not-so-cheap-that-americans-won-t-profit-from-it.html
And for your information the term "Project" includes the entire life of the extraction field.