Rising shale production will offset OPEC cuts: Rosneft CEO Unclear how OPEC can phase out its curbs, say BP and Total A crude price in the $50s is the new reality for bosses of some of the world’s largest producers as output caps from OPEC and its allies are balanced out by rising U.S. shale. Executives of energy companies from Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc to Russia’s Lukoil PJSC and Gazprom PJSC , who gathered this week at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, see an oil price of $50 to $55 at least for this year. “Unless something extreme happens, we are not going to get back to much higher,” IHS Markit Ltd. Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin, author of the definitive history of the oil industry, said in an interview at the conference on Friday. “The exception was $100 per barrel, that was an aberrant period. […]