‘Red Queen Syndrome’ Hits Global Oil Production

Shale oil wells are gushers in their first year, then deplete rapidly. Shale companies therefore, have to keep ploughing more money into production just to keep output flat, a phenomenon known as the “Red Queen Syndrome,” named after Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. Shale wells typically bleed off 70 to 90% in their first three years and drop by 20 to 40% a year without new drilling. A recent IEA Report confirms this, stating that the world’s oil and gas fields are declining at a faster…