The U.S. shale oil business is drawing closer to a precipice, and energy executives worry it could be years before the industry can revive the major investment and engine for jobs that had powered Houston’s economy just 18 months ago. Oil drillers are facing a financial crisis – a $130 billion cash shortfall – in the wake of plummeting prices. Banks are gearing up to cut billions from oil firms’ credit lines in preparation for a wave of financial losses from their loans to oil producers. The financial toll to the oil and gas industry will be difficult to repair even after prices recover, executives say, because once-eager investors and bankers, burned by […]