Sky-high oil prices haven’t been able to bolster shale spending. Shale firms are sticking to their guns, prioritizing shareholder returns over everything. “Whether it’s $150 oil, $200 oil, or $100 oil, we’re not going to change our growth plans.” With Brent crude at $120 per barrel and WTI close behind it, the fundamentals picture of crude oil globally is not a sight of comfort. It is a sight of worry. Many relied on the U.S. shale patch to alleviate this worry by ramping up production. Yet U.S. shale is not budging. This time, the swing producer is not swinging. “The US oil and gas supply system remains very potent, but at any given price, growth will be smaller and slower,” Raoul LeBlanc, S&P Global vice president for North American upstream oil and gas, told Bloomberg last week. “Without the subsidy that shale shareholders provided, consumers can expect to pay […]