$110 Oil Prompts Private Shale Firms To Open The Taps

When rebounding oil demand began pushing benchmarks higher last year, forecasters and traders alike watched the U.S. shale patch with bated breath to see when drillers would start drilling again. Most didn't. The ones that did were the smaller, privately held players. Public shale companies suffered a serious blow from the pandemic when growing shareholder disgruntlement combined with the unprecedented destruction of demand for oil to pressure them into a rearrangement of priorities, to which these companies appear to have stuck despite the price…