Baker Hughes eyeing crude price drop

Crude prices: Could weigh on prolific shale oil development

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By News wires

 20 July 2012 22:03 GMT

Leading oil services firm Baker Hughes warned on Friday that booming drilling in the shale oil fields of North Dakota and even south Texas could slow if US prices drop below $80 a barrel.

While it has been clear for months that the pull-back in oil prices and searing costs have begun to temper the race to tap into the country's shale oil plays, Baker Hughes chief executive Martin Craighead's comments were the bluntest yet to suggest that crude oil prices are already hovering near a key break point, Reuters reported.

Companies tapping the vast US bounty of shale and other tight oil plays may be scrutinizing some higher-cost production after West Texas Intermediate prices slumped in the second quarter, Craighead said in a conference call…

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