Goldman, CFR research shows deterioration in break-even prices OPEC fiscal break-even now higher than listed energy companies Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the lowest-cost oil producer of them all? The price of a barrel of Brent crude has more than halved over the past five years, triggering an existential crisis for the world’s biggest oil producers. It’s also forced the withdrawal of billions of petrodollars that have been circulating throughout the global economy while providing a windfall to consumers in the form of lower energy costs. The slide has come amid a great clash between the historically dominant OPEC members — now attempting to support prices with a global production-cut deal and scrambling to diversify their economies — and upstart shale producers in the U.S., which have slashed costs, improved their efficiency and refinanced vast loads of debt in a drive to survive. Two recent pieces of research […]