Most US shale firms fail to hedge

NEW YORK: With the benefit of hindsight, last quarter may have been the best chance for cash-strapped US shale oil producers to ensure they would get at least US$60 a barrel for the next year or two. Barely a third did so.

According to a Reuters analysis of hedging disclosures by the 30 largest such firms, more than half of them did not expand their hedges during the three months ended June or had no hedges at all, exposing them to a plunge that wiped more than US$20 off the price of oil in the following months.