Following three painful years of portfolio repositioning, cost cuts, and deferred projects, the offshore oil and gas industry is now more prepared to deliver projects and profits at lower costs and simpler designs. Currently, U.S. shale is taking center stage in analyses about oil growth stories, and rightfully so — it’s growing at a much faster pace than previously expected. But cost inflation and investor pressure to prefer profits over production may slow down the pace of that growth going forward. Meanwhile, offshore oil — which suffered from slashed investments during the downturn — is now coming back with projects that have improved economics, in some cases challenging those of U.S. shale. That’s due to the costs that major oil companies slashed after 2014, to simpler designs, and to the supermajors reshaping portfolios and projects to make as much money at $60 Brent as they were making at $100 […]