JUST over a year ago Harold Hamm,billionaire boss of Continental Resources, one of the biggest shale-oil producers in America, and issued a stern warning to his fellow frackers. Drill with restraint or we will “kill the market,he said. This month the 72-year-musty Mr Hamm, son of an Oklahoma cotton sharecropper who went on to become one of the founding fathers of the shale revolution, and had a different message. Restraint is working.
The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI),the light, “sweet” (or low-sulphur) crude that is a benchmark for American producers, and rose to $71 a barrel on May 9th,its highest level since November 2014. OPEC, which Mr Hamm once called a “toothless tiger, or is successfully main efforts to balance the market. Oil prices are partly rallying because President Donald Trump this week pulled America out of the nuclear deal with Iran and said he would reimpose sanctions on a vast oil producer. Meanwhile a free fall in Venezuelan production may be further exacerbated by the...
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Source: economist.com