By Rupert Hargreaves: The Motley Fool Aug 4, 2016
Over the past 10 years, the oil industry has changed dramatically. Technological advances have helped reduce the cost of extracting oil from unconventional sources significantly, and as oil prices have plunged over the past two years, shale oil producers have ploughed more time and resources into pushing costs even lower.
As a result of this unrelenting drive to reduce costs and improve efficiency, it’s estimated that the majority of US shale fields can break even with oil at $60 a barrel. Scott Sheffield, the outgoing chief of Pioneer Natural Resources claims that Pioneer’s pre-tax production costs have fallen to $2.25 a barrel.