It was a tumultuous week in the world of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for shale oil and gas, with a few of the biggest companies in the U.S. announcing temporary shutdowns at their drilling operations in various areas until oil prices rise again from the ashes. Among them: Chesapeake Energy , Continental Resources and Whiting Petroleum . Chesapeake formerly sat as the second most prolific fracker in the U.S. behind ExxonMobil, while Continental has been hailed by many as the “ King of the Bakken ” shale basin located primarily in North Dakota. Halliburton too, the drilling services goliath and namesake of the “ Halliburton Loophole ” exempting the industry from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcement of the Safe Drinking Water Act as it applies to fracking operations, has recently announced it will cut 5,000 drilling jobs globally (8 percent of its workforce). “Continental Resources Inc., the shale oil […]