Shale Sputters as Oil Slides Into Profit Danger Zone

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U.S. shale drillers are scaling back as crude prices drift into the red zone for profitability, according to Quantum Capital Group’s Dwight Scott. With West Texas Intermediate (WTI) hovering near $65, private operators are seeing diminishing returns on new drilling activity. “In the mid-$60s, you get dangerously close to where oil prices don’t really drive appropriate returns for new drilling,” Scott said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Wednesday. WTI has dropped 8% since the start of the year and sat at $65.82 on Wednesday.…