With oil price recovery taking hold, several U.S. oil and gas companies entered 2018 with a compelling plan – sell undeveloped or less essential fields and invest the money to boost returns from their sweetest, most productive spots. There is a catch, though. The strategy assumes that with crude now up more than 150 percent from its February 2016 bottom enough firms are keen to crank up production, even if it means buying fields with higher extraction costs and lower margins. So far, sale attempts suggest those buyers may be hard to come by. After a bruising downturn, shareholders are looking to get a cut of improved profits and asset sale proceeds rather than underwrite acquisitions, those involved in […]