Tales of reaching peak oil in the nation’s most prolific basins have ushered in a not-bloody-likely response by U.S. shale producers deploying new recovery methods, technologies, and chemical “cocktails” to enhance production from their existing rock vs finding new.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest news from Hart Energy fresh off last week’s CERAWeek, where ExxonMobil’s VP for upstream unconventional remarked, “We know that we leave more than 90% of the resource in the ground.” That’s been a bigtime inspiration for bigtime players Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Diamondback Energy, which are injecting advanced chemical cocktails known as surfactants during the fracking process and well completions. Exxon, meanwhile, is developing a lightweight proppant while others are redesigning completions to capture more juice.  

A new phase of shale may be upon us during a most precarious time of unstable prices and global instability, but U.S. energy innovation never fails to prevail.