Dog days of summer for US shale producers

Listening to some of the US shale industry's top executives during the second quarter results season, one might think that shale output was surging ahead as strong as ever

Whiting Petroleum's chief executive James Volker boasted to analysts that his company had posted record output of 170,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day (boe/d) in the second quarter and planned to stay on that course. Continental Resources's president Jack Stark said his company's output was a third higher than the same time last year and 10% higher than three months ago, even though the company had slashed spending this year and pulled rigs out of the shale patch. "Bottom line, more production at a lower cost," Stark told analysts. But these companies are the exception not the rule. Shale output across the US' largest plays is set to fall for the sixth straight month in September, according