This week the inaugural DUG Executive conference was held in Houston where E&P executives gathered to discuss the major U.S. shale plays. The talk centered on oil prices, opportunities and technology such as big data, manufacturing models and even drones. Maynard Holt, CEO of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., opened the conference and told Hart Energy that things are starting to look good across nearly all of the plays. “It’s probably another way of saying with oil in the low $60s, with service costs pretty reasonable, when you’re in some of those good jurisdictions, you can put money to work and make money. It’s a pretty good market,” Holt said.

Apache CEO John Christmann left little doubt as to where his company’s focus is these days. While he touted international plays, including emerging developments in Suriname, he told the audience “the Permian is attracting the majority of our capital investment.”

The EIA said this week U.S. crude oil production shattered a 47-year output record in November and then retreated slightly in December. Oil output rose to more than 10 million barrels per day in November, a revision from earlier estimates. U.S. output has been surging, thanks to shale, pushing the U.S. past Saudi Arabia among top producers. The new record likely won’t last though. The U.S. government forecasts production will hit 11 million barrels per day later this year.

Shell warned that an LNG supply crunch could be on the horizon saying that tens of billions of dollars of new investment is needed in LNG projects to meet surging demand from China and other developing countries.

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