Top shale oil producers are lifting their crude and gas reserve estimates for the first time in two years – even as many major oil companies are cutting the same projections and taking write downs on more expensive fields. Rising confidence in the growth prospects of the U.S. shale patch is in striking contrast to the retreat of the world’s top oil firms from the high-cost oil sands of Canada. The increase in reported shale reserves is driven by new drilling efficiencies, leaner operations and improved well completion techniques, industry experts said. “Many wells that were not profitable a year ago have become profitable” because those advances have cut the cost of producing from shale, said Per Magnus Nysveen, a senior partner at consultancy Rystad Energy. The top 20 U.S. shale firms – […]