Piling the pressure on US LTO
The country’s production may struggle to return even to its pre-pandemic levels, while growing to new heights seems a distant prospect
The US light tight oil (LTO) industry has been on a heck of a ride over the past decade. Domestic crude production has more than doubled, reaching record levels and stealing substantial market share from Opec and its allies. On the other hand, the competitive threat from rampant US supply has also triggered two oil price wars. And the economic fallout from the second of these and from the Covid-19 pandemic means it will take several years for US LTO production to match the record 9.15mn bl/d set in December 2019, before industry shut-ins and the widescale collapse in drilling activity (see Figures 1 and 2). At worst, US LTO output may have peaked. Troubled industry A wall of cash from bank
Also in this section
19 February 2026
US LNG exporter Cheniere Energy has grown its business rapidly since exporting its first cargo a decade ago. But Chief Commercial Officer Anatol Feygin tells Petroleum Economist that, as in the past, the company’s future expansion plans are anchored by high levels of contracted offtake, supporting predictable returns on investment
19 February 2026
Growth in LNG supply will surpass the rise in demand in 2026 for the first time in years, according to Mike Fulwood, senior research fellow at the OIES, but lower prices are likely to encourage fuel switching and could create more demand on a permanent basis
19 February 2026
Awais Ali Butt, manager for sales and business development at Pakistan LNG Ltd, discusses LNG’s role in energy security across developing, price-sensitive economies, as well as examining trade-offs between buying strategies and the impact of lower prices and policy on import behaviour
19 February 2026
LNG’s technical maturity, availability and price, as well as regulation, have driven its rapid adoption as a marine fuel, yet its future in shipping will depend on transition policies and progress in cutting methane emissions and scaling bio- and synthetic LNG, according to Carlos Guerrero at Bureau Veritas
