Shale drilling does not produce as much oil and gas as the industry promised, raising questions about the productivity, profitability and, ultimately, the longevity of the fracking boom. The Wall Street Journal published a damning investigation into the productivity of thousands of shale wells, finding that as time has passed, oil and gas production from shale wells has proved to be more disappointing than previously thought. The report adds more evidence to the conclusion that the WSJ came to nearly a year ago , which raised serious questions about problems endemic to shale drilling. After an initial burst of production, shale wells decline rapidly, a fact that has been widely known since the fracking boom began more than a decade ago. However, companies promised that these wells would stay online for years, perhaps even decades, even though they would produce at a small fraction of their initial peak. But […]