US light tight oil has become the marginal barrel for the global crude market and shale production represents the highest return on investment, but capital is also pouring into conventional plays outside the Lower 48 states, Helen Currie, ConocoPhillips’ chief economist said Tuesday. “I think you will start to see the industry spending more on conventional resources this year and next,” Currie said in an interview on the sidelines of CERAWeek by IHS Markit. Currie said producers will likely boost capital investments in Latin America and in the Gulf of Mexico, but said she expects spending will increase in conventional plays throughout the world, including the Middle East, China, India and Australia. “We’re coming off this period where so much capital has just gone into the unconventional in the lower 48,” she said. “That still […]