Despite a wave of financial adversity that has tormented US onshore E&P companies lately, Rystad Energy does not view this as a harbinger of doom for the shale industry going forward. “In a nutshell, we do not believe the recent bankruptcies that have beset a number of shale players are indicative of an industry-wide epidemic,” says Alisa Lukash, a senior analyst on Rystad Energy’s North American Shale team. During the next seven years, the top 40 US shale oil producers are expected to spend about $100 billion on debt instalments and interest unless further debt refinancing is applied. These drillers, which accounted for nearly half of US shale crude production in 2018, are facing interest payments of between $2.6 billion and $5.1 billion annually, while the maturities schedule totals roughly $71 billion between 2020 and 2026. During the first half of 2019, this peer group generated $23.7 billion in […]