| Like invasions of Russia and land battles in Asia, a war on U.S. shale promises to be a protracted and unpredictable campaign. Rising U.S. shale oil output is one target of Saudi Arabia’s push to have OPEC members maintain their output and so depress oil prices. Even leaving aside OPEC’s clutch of internal divisions, though, fighting U.S. shale will prove a grind—with substantial attrition on the cartel’s side.
Part of OPEC’s problem is that U.S. shale is a many-headed beast, with multiple resource basins and operators. So there isn’t a single price below which production gets shut down. Rather, estimates of break-even prices in U.S. shale span a range: Citigroup , for one, estimates this to be around $70 to $90 a barrel using full-cycle costs...............................................Full Article: Source
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