LogFAQs > #965458172

Sackgurl posted...

i got my info from deloitte, who your employers hired to help them figure out how much money they wasted operating those wells over the last decade

their estimate was 300 billion dollars

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/energy-and-resources/articles/covid-19-implications-for-us-shale-industry.html

You are misreading that $300 billion bullet point, basically an oil well is a huge up front cost and then pays back over 30 years. That $300 billion just accounts for drilled wells that haven't been completed, haven't been turned online, or haven't yet paid out their initial investment.

The industry as a whole started pivoting in 2018 from a pure oil production growth (no matter how much debt you had to take on and how negative your cash flow was) to a profit driven industry like a typical business, and COVID just accelerated this transition exponentially.

Here is an article saying half the wells in the US are profitable at $40 oil:

https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/half-of-producing-shale-oil-wells-are-profitable-at-40-bbl-analyst-says-60035427