Shale drillers are scrambling to take advantage of the recent surge in oil prices, but the cost of production could begin to creep up, offsetting some of the promised gains. In a sign that shale companies are gearing up with WTI in the mid-$60s, the oil rig count jumped by 10 last week, the largest weekly gain since June of last year. Meanwhile, the EIA recently upped its forecast for U.S. oil production, predicting the U.S. would average 10.3 million barrels per day (mb/d) this year, an increase of nearly 300,000 bpd from last month’s forecast. With the shale industry firing on all cylinders, all signs point to massive production growth. The EIA sees the U.S. topping 11 mb/d by the end of 2019. But one mitigating factor could be a rebound in production costs. Much of the “efficiency gains” that the shale industry has achieved over the last […]