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by nwsm 2835 days ago
I'm not seeing where he says they are not long-run profitable, only that the oil industry is hard to predict, which has been obviously true for decades.

American shale plays can be profitable down to $40/bbl

1 comments

The author is a she, and when she says this:

"And what fascinated me about this industry is it doesn't make money. These companies lose billions of dollars. They've never produced free cash flow. They're really dependent on Wall Street's willingness to fund them. "

That's where I made the interpretation that the idea being presented here is that fracking is not long-run profitable. So I now have to wonder, when "profitable" at $40/bbl is quoted, does that might mean some form of operational profit but not payback of capital layout - or maybe not including debt service or equipment wear out if she's talking about free cash flow.