While U.S. shale production is booming and the Permian continues to set new production records , the pace of growth is slowing as many companies have recently scaled back production growth targets while investors and bankers continue to be skeptical about the shale industry’s returns. After oil prices crashed in the fourth quarter of 2018, many independent producers trimmed their spending budgets for this year, but investors continue to be unconvinced that they will see steady healthy returns, as evidenced in the market value of many smaller producers, Bloomberg estimates show. For example, small producers Legacy Reserves and Approach Resources saw their market value plunge by 99 percent and 87 percent, respectively, in the past year. Bigger players, including Parsley Energy, Centennial Resource Development, and QEP Resources, lost 42 to 59 percent of their market value in one year, according to Bloomberg calculations. Legacy Reserves of Midland, Texas, even […]