Today’s U.S. oil producers have to not just survive another boom and bust cycle but adjust to the new reality of lower prices and shrinking profits. How? Typically by driving capital and operating efficiency to preserve margins and maintain reinvestment rates.
However, that “solution” is conventional wisdom that contractors have been using for years — cut people and costs during downturns, then increase the same during boom. Is it time for a paradigm shift in the business model itself to separate from the normal boom and bust cycles? Probably yes. But what is that model?