The US really needs for oil to maintain a price that keeps shale in the black.
Not just for oil. Without shale, the natural gas glut will go away and that’s a very big deal.
Yes but will the lowering of gas prices make it cheaper to drill for Shale oil?
When oil the prices fall far enough the shale production will slow or stop. That will cause an increase in prices and when prices rise high enough shale production will again pick up.
It’s the marketplace. Supply/demand. Works every time.
Decreasing the availability of natural gas, would put pressure on oil prices to go back up.
What the U.S. needs is a lot more faith in the free-market system!
Have you already forgotten the pain run-away oil prices can wreak on your economy? How would you propose supporting the oil industry long-term? Subsidies? Will the hundreds of billions required for that come from the same magical source that will cover the cost of Bernie’s Medicare-for-all plan?
Or, would you rather support OPEC, and keep the price up with supply management? Again — resulting in a cost of hundreds of billions/year to the U.S. economy.
Here, in Canada, where we’ve been oil and gas exporters for decades, we’ve learned (from painful experience) that the only external shocks the oil & gas industry cannot recover from, come from government interventions.
“Not just for oil. Without shale, the natural gas glut will go away and that’s a very big deal.”
Does that mean oil prices down and natural gas prices up?
Saudi Arabia looks like they’re intent on killing American shale. At these prices they’ll succeed.
Shale has been reducing the cost of their barrels, and they need to reduce even more.
Oil has gone down more than 33%, but we have seen a maximum of 10 cent reduction in gas prices.
This, too, shall pass.