U.S. shale drillers are bringing back shut in production three months after the onset of the current downturn. But steep decline rates will increasingly take hold, dragging down overall U.S. output later this year. With oil prices approaching $40 per barrel, many drillers are covering immediate operational costs. Rystad Energy estimates that “a bit more than 300,000 bpd” of shut in U.S. oil production has come back online. A total of 1.15 million barrels per day (mb/d) was shut in in April and May, and that output will “return swiftly over July and August,” JBC Energy wrote in a note. But that doesn’t mean U.S. oil production will rebound in a V-shaped fashion. “$40 is a blessing in disguise. Nobody’s going to add rigs, nobody’s going to add fleets at $40 oil,” Scott Sheffield of Pioneer Natural Resources told Bloomberg . “I’m trying to convince OPEC members that our […]