It promised to be the next great shale play, but an oil-and-gas-rich area of central and south Oklahoma has confounded many of the producers lured there, with one of its biggest champions warning that its business may struggle to survive. In recent years, the SCOOP (South Central Oklahoma Oil Province) and the STACK (Sooner Trend, Anadarko, Canadian and Kingfisher) basins drew producers and private equity firms willing to wager billions of dollars on what many considered the next Permian basin, the largest and most prolific U.S. oilfield. But while their many layers of oil mimicked the Permian, the region’s geology proved more inconsistent, undercutting results and making it a higher-cost U.S. shale area for producers. Alta Mesa Resources Inc, which […]