Global investment in upstream oil production this year is down around $100 billion, almost 20% lower than in 2014 and the largest drop ever seen, the International Energy Agency’s chief economist Fatih Birol said Wednesday, May 6. The biggest portion of this is in the US, Canada and Brazil, Birol told journalists in Doha. “Especially for shale oil, the decline rates are very steep. Investment decisions have to be taken in a very short time, as they are much more price sensitive”, Birol said. “At the price level seen at the beginning of this year [around $45/barrel], there will not be many projects in North America that will be profitable,” he said. This is despite declining supply chain costs which have made US shale producers significantly more efficient. “There is still a huge gap between the cost of shale and the cost of [crude oil] production in the Middle […]