While OPEC has just two weeks left until the May 25th meeting to decide on an extension of its production cuts, U.S. shale is back to drilling and planning capital spending increases this year at a pace that is ten times faster than the rise in international oil companies’ budgets. Emerging from the oil price rout with leaner operations and a meaner cost attitude, U.S. shale has started taking advantage of the increase in oil prices following the production cut deal that OPEC and 11 non-OPEC nations led by Russia struck at end-November. U.S. production started growing from the recent lows, and drillers have become more confident in their plans, with WTI prices hovering around US$50 for most of the first quarter this year. Drillers in North America plan a combined capital expenditure of US$84 billion this year, an increase of 32 percent compared to last year, according to […]