Shale drillers have squeezed more oil out of a given well over the past few years by becoming more efficient in their drilling operations. But the industry is still scaling up, and shale executives are now throwing around buzzwords such as “cube development” and “supersizing,” referring to the massive footprint of today’s wellpads. In the past, shale companies figured out a way to cut costs while expanding production: drilling more wells on a single wellpad. In essence, that lowered the average cost of a shale well, allowing drillers to do more with less. Other techniques were also scaled up, such as using more frac sand , more water, and drilling longer laterals. That allowed shale firms to survive during the downturn, and it has also led to surging production that is breaking new records with each passing week. But the process continues, and shale companies are using that same […]