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Survey of oil drillers helps explain shale's surge

Ben Geman, author of Generate

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has a new survey of oil-and-gas companies in their region that helps explain why U.S. production — especially from shale formations in the Permian Basin — is slated to keep surging.

Expand chart
Data: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; Chart: Chris Canipe/Axios

Check out the chart above: It shows the range of answers from executives at 65 companies about the price point they need to profitably drill new wells in several regions. WTI is trading in the $64-per-barrel range on Thursday morning. Even with increased shareholder focus on generating returns from shale producers, the survey is more evidence that the boom has staying power.

Quoted: "As the breakeven price doesn't stay the same as acreage is drilled out and costs change, production growth longer-term will be dependent on changes to this breakeven price and the price of crude oil," Kunal Patel, a senior analyst at Dallas Fed, said in an email exchange.

  • "However, the breakeven for the region has been relatively stable ($51 in 2016, $48 in 2017, $50 in 2018), so there can be production growth for many years in the future assuming prices remain at current levels," he added.

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CIA Director Gina Haspel. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

CIA Director Gina Haspel threatened to resign in early December after President Trump cooked up a hasty plan to install loyalist Kash Patel, a former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), as her deputy, according to three senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the matter.

Why it matters: The revelation stunned national security officials and almost blew up the leadership of the world's most powerful spy agency. Only a series of coincidences — and last minute interventions from Vice President Mike Pence and White House counsel Pat Cipollone — stopped it.

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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

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John Weaver, Lincoln Project co-founder, acknowledges “inappropriate” messages

John Weaver aboard John McCain's campaign plane in February 2000. Photo: Robert Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

John Weaver, a veteran Republican operative who co-founded the Lincoln Project, declared in a statement to Axios on Friday that he sent “inappropriate,” sexually charged messages to multiple men.

  • “To the men I made uncomfortable through my messages that I viewed as consensual mutual conversations at the time: I am truly sorry. They were inappropriate and it was because of my failings that this discomfort was brought on you,” Weaver said.
  • “The truth is that I'm gay,” he added. “And that I have a wife and two kids who I love. My inability to reconcile those two truths has led to this agonizing place.”
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