- Bloomberg.com – Shale Billionaire Hamm Says Industry Binge Can ‘Kill’ Oil Market
Harold Hamm, the billionaire shale oilman, said the U.S. industry could “kill” the oil market if it embarks into another spending binge, a rare warning in a business focused on fast growth to compete with OPEC. The statement, at an energy conference in Houston on Wednesday, comes as top shale companies announce large increases in spending for this year, and the U.S. government says domestic oil output next year will surpass the record high set in 1970. OPEC ministers have said they are keeping a close watch on shale production to decide in late May whether to extend their oil-supply cuts into the second half of the year…Shale producers are staging the biggest surge in drilling since 2012, with the number of oil rigs rising to more than 600 this month, nearly double the level of June. They are rushing to spend again after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia agreed last year to cut its supplies, boosting oil above $50 a barrel after a two-year price rout…Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih earlier this week warned CERAWeek attendees that what he called the green shoots emerging in the U.S. oil industry were perhaps growing “too fast.” ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance quipped afterward that the green shoots looked more like “trees” to him. Al-Falih, in a clear message to the U.S. industry, said it would be “wishful thinking” to expect that Saudi Arabia and OPEC “will underwrite the investments of others at our own expense” through production cuts.