Breakeven $50-60

In a press briefing following a June 20 investor conference in New York, Ed Crooks of the Financial Times reported that Torstein Hole, Statoil’s senior vice president of development and production for onshore North America, told reporters, “Our Bakken shale portfolio competes very well with the average of projects across the (onshore North America) group, which would have a breakeven price of about $50-$60 per barrel.”

“There’s also some slackening in the market for oil and gas services that should help keep costs down,” Hole said.

“There is a time-lag, because contracts have to be renegotiated, but we could see a drop of 20 percent in costs over the next few years as a result of technology improvements and softer costs for services,” he said.

—Kay Cashman