For the U.S. shale industry, the third quarter was more of the same: new record highs in oil production, but another quarter of negative cash flow. A sample of 38 publicly-traded oil and gas companies posted $1.26 billion in negative cash flow in the third quarter, according to a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The performance was a deterioration from the previous quarter, which saw marginal positive cash flow. In fact, the results from the second quarter, while unimpressive, were actually the industry’s best showing . But even barely breaking even didn’t last. “The third quarter’s dismal results cap a decade of disappointments for shale investors, who have waited for years for the industry to generate cash to go along with the enormous volumes of oil and gas it produces,” Clark Williams-Derry and Kathy Hipple wrote in the IEEFA report. The outlook isn’t […]