Will rapidly rising oilfield service costs derail efforts by companies to maintain fiscal austerity while hitting their production targets? That question emerged as a major theme during fourth-quarter earnings calls, and analysts say the answer is an emphatic no. WTI oil prices that have risen from a 2015-2017 average of $48/b to roughly $60/b have buoyed the industry and settled a blanket of confidence over oil company boardrooms. Low prices had stemmed from a rapid rise in shale oil output, which added nearly 4 million b/d of crude from end-2010 to end-2014. The event caught upstream companies, long used to outspending their incomes, off-guard. Now that industry is well into recovery mode, most observers believe the painful recent past has made a deep impression that won’t easily be forgotten. “I haven’t come across anything that says [producers] won’t continue to operate within cash flows” which was a recurrent oil […]