The Permian has been attracting independent U.S. drillers and oil majors who want to capitalize on short-cycle returns in the world’s hottest shale play, but one of the world’s supermajors is not joining the large in-crowd comprised of drillers that are jumping on the shale bandwagon. France’s Total—unlike competitors Exxon, Chevron, and Shell – thinks that the Permian is not the best allocation of capital to create value for the company and its shareholders. Speaking at the CERAWeek in Houston this week, Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanné told IHS Markit’s Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin that choosing where to invest is a question of allocation of capital. “What we learn from this low cycle is that you can’t do everything,” Pouyanné said, adding that it doesn’t make sense for Total and its investors to allocate capital to gain access to the Permian to produce 50,000 bpd of oil. Unlike its competitors, […]