John Hess, CEO of Hess Corporation, a large U.S.-based independent oil producer, recently told a Houston audience where he’s putting the company’s money these days : Offshore drilling. That should strike those who know of Hess Corporation’s heavy involvement in the Bakken shale play (in North Dakota) as a bit strange. Hess says the company will “use cash flow from the Bakken to invest in longer-term offshore investments.” Hess told his audience that “key U.S. shale fields are starting to plateau, calling shale ‘important but not the next Saudi Arabia.'” Setting aside whether Hess is actually getting investable cash from the Bakken, the constant refrain from the U.S. oil industry has been precisely that shale plays ARE the next Saudi Arabia. Someone should send a note to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) that maybe it’s not all going to work out. If Hess is right about a peak […]