Crude oil production in the United States has been on the rise , topping 10.86 million bpd in September—the highest since May. Still, it’s a lot lower than it was a year ago and likely to remain lower for the observable future. It looks like U.S. shale’s heyday is all but over, thanks to the pandemic. This is not just an observation, either. Shale oil executives themselves see little chance for major production growth in the patch in the next few years—if ever—as OPEC reasserted itself as the ultimate swing producer globally with its April production cut deal that is still keeping a floor under prices. “In the future, certainly we believe OPEC will be the swing producer — really, totally in control of oil prices,” said Bill Thomas, EOG Resources chief executive, as quoted by Bloomberg. He went on to add something else quite significant: “We don’t want […]