DAVID BLACKMON: Drill, Baby, Drill Makes Modest Comeback

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Oklahoma-based Continental Resources made news this week by announcing it will increase its drilling and production capital budget in response to the new higher oil price environment that has evolved in response to the Iran Conflict.

“Continental is increasing our capital budget, which will increase production,” Lawler said in a statement to Bloomberg. With that reversal of a previously planned substantial cut in capital outlays, Continental becomes the first big shale player in the United States to announce its intention to focus on raising production in response to the current obvious price signal.

The move set off speculation of a looming return to the “Drill, Baby, Drill” shale boom times of the first Trump presidency. But investors and analysts should temper such expectations because times in the U.S. shale patch have changed over the last decade, and the strategic approaches of management teams inside the big shale upstream companies have shifted apace. A price signal as strong as the rise of both the Brent and WTI indexes above $100 per barrel will inevitably draw a supply response. These shifts in shale fundamentals have come in response to several overarching drivers.

First is the maturity of America’s........

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