U.S. oil prices traded below $50 last week and closed Monday at $52.95. What Does ‘Break-Even’ Mean? Most fracking operations need an oil price above $50 a barrel for robust profit. *Price cited for an individual shale well to have a 10% profit margin Source: R.S. Energy Group The disconnect between the figures cited by companies and their corporate returns lies in the widespread use of a metric called a break-even, often defined as the selling price frackers say they need to generate a small profit on individual wells or projects. While the figure can be quite low for some companies in certain hot spots, it can be a misleading measure of their overall profitability in periods of lower prices. Your browser does not support HTML5 video. 0:00 / 0:00 Skip Ad in 15 Analysts were predicting that crude would reach $100 a barrel just a month ago. Instead, […]