Shale producers in the U.S. have learned to do more with less. Last year’s price crash forced drillers to cut budgets, reducing the number of rigs in U.S. oil fields by 59 percent from the peak. Crude production, though, has fallen only about 5 percent. Part of the reason for that is a spurt of innovation driven by desperation. Rig productivity increased last month in all shale oil plays, the Energy Information Administration said in a report Monday, as companies drill more wells in less time. Wells being drilled this month will be able to pump about 389,000 barrels a day of new production, down 39 percent from last November, a much shallower drop than the overall rig count, according to Austin, Texas-based Drilling Info Inc. “The amount of producibility per rig […]