{"id":39530,"date":"2018-10-22T07:07:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T12:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=39530"},"modified":"2018-10-22T07:07:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T12:07:50","slug":"u-s-shale-has-a-glaring-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=39530","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Shale Has A Glaring Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/oilprice.com\/Energy\/Energy-General\/US-Shale-Has-A-Glaring-Problem.html\">U.S. Shale Has A Glaring Problem<\/a><\/h3>\n<picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/d32r1sh890xpii.cloudfront.net\/article\/420x175\/a2da1615453e4a5d41b0df8ec24e8eb3.jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 480px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"singleArticle__articleImage\" title=\"texas\" src=\"https:\/\/d32r1sh890xpii.cloudfront.net\/article\/718x300\/a2da1615453e4a5d41b0df8ec24e8eb3.jpg\" alt=\"texas\" \/><\/picture>\n<div id=\"article-content\" class=\"wysiwyg clear\">\n<p>Oil prices are down a bit, but are still close to multi-year highs. That should leave the shale industry flush with cash. However, a long list of U.S. shale companies are still struggling to turn a profit.<\/p>\n<p>A new <a href=\"http:\/\/ieefa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Red-Flags-on-U.S.-Fracking_October-2018.pdf\">report<\/a> from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and the Sightline Institute detail the \u201calarming volumes of red ink\u201d within the shale industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven after two and a half years of rising oil prices and growing expectations for improved financial results, a review of 33 publicly traded oil and gas fracking companies shows the companies posting negative free cash flows through June,\u201d the report\u2019s authors write. The 33 small and medium-sized drillers posted a combined $3.9 billion in negative cash flow in the first half of 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The glaring problem with the poor financial results is that 2018 was supposed to be the year that the shale industry finally turned a corner. Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency painted a rosy portrait of U.S. shale, <a href=\"https:\/\/oilprice.com\/Energy\/Crude-Oil\/Profitability-Is-Finally-Within-Reach-For-US-Shale.html\">arguing<\/a> in a report that \u201chigher prices and operational improvements are putting the US shale sector on track to achieve positive free cash flow in 2018 for the first time ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The improved outlook came after years of mounting debt and negative cash flow. The IEA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iea.org\/newsroom\/news\/2018\/july\/investment-analysis-the-journey-of-us-light-tight-oil-production-towards-a-finan.html?utm_content=bufferee0f1&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer\">estimates<\/a> that the U.S. shale industry generated cumulative negative free cash flow of over $200 billion between 2010 and 2014. The oil market downturn that began in 2014 was supposed to have changed profligate spending, pushing out inefficient companies and leaving the sector as a whole much leaner and healthier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurrent trends suggest that the shale industry as a whole may finally turn a profit in 2018, although downside risks remain,\u201d the IEA wrote in July.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Shale Has A Glaring Problem Oil prices are down a bit, but are still close to multi-year highs. That should leave the shale industry flush with cash. However, a long list of U.S. shale companies are still struggling to turn a profit. A new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[22502,22500,6010,594,5332,22501,846],"class_list":["post-39530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-energy-economics-and-financial-analysis","tag-ieefa","tag-nick-cunningham","tag-oil-prices","tag-oilprice-com","tag-sightline-institute","tag-us-shale-oil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39531,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39530\/revisions\/39531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}