US shale producers are on course to make nearly $200 billion this year, enough to make the industry debt-free by 2024 and potentially fund a pivot toward more natural gas production, according to Deloitte LLP. High oil prices and disciplined capital spending mean American frackers are on course for their most profitable year on record, part of a global trend that will see the oil and gas industry generate a record $1.4 trillion of free cash flow, Deloitte said in a report. After paying down debt and rewarding shareholders, US producers will likely focus more on natural gas production due to high demand and prices around the world. “We see a shift in upstream activity toward natural gas,” Amy Chronis, Deloitte’s US oil, gas and chemicals leader, said in an interview. Shale operators “will double down on US natural gas basins” and may have enough money left over to […]