If you follow energy markets at all, you know that prices on the Brent global oil benchmark have traded within a robust band of $70 to $80 a barrel for the last five months. But such prices are a pipe dream – literally – for U.S. shale producers, particularly those in the prolific Permian Basin which accounts for more than a third of all domestic production at nearly 3.4 million barrels a day. Permian producers are fetching closer to $50 a barrel due to the lack of takeaway capacity – pipelines and associated infrastructure – that would allow them to efficiently export oil from the Gulf of Mexico coast to global markets. Producers are instead being forced to use less efficient railways and trucks or worse put it in storage. With prices for oil in future months cheaper than prompt or “spot” crude orders – a situation known as […]