SHALE FIRMS FOLLOW SAUDI SUGGESTION, QUIT FRACKING

One day after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said it was time for high-cost producers to call it quits, two Bakken shale drillers announced they’re doing just that. Continental Resources Inc., the shale oil pioneer controlled by billionaire wildcatter Harold Hamm, halted all fracking in the Bakken shale formation in the U. S. Williston Basin after posting its first annual loss since the company’s public debut in 2007. Whiting Petroleum Corp. estimates it will leave 73 uncompleted wells in the region by year-end, and another 95 in the Niobrara shale area in the Denver-Julesburg Basin. Hamm, owner of 76 per cent of Continental’s common stock, has responded to plummeting crude prices by slashing his drilling budget and shutting down rigs in the Bakken, where the company is one of the dominant explorers. After spending US$1.27 billion on acquisitions to expand its footprint in the region since late 2011, Continental is now seeking to raise cash by attracting investments from joint-venture partners in an Oklahoma discovery known as the Stack.