Post Carbon Fellow David Hughes was quoted in this article on the challenges hitting the shale oil industry.

From the article:

If there’s a silver lining in this for shale producers, it’s that they’ve managed to drive their costs down as they’ve learned more about the plays in which they’re operating. Indeed, as prices were falling in October and November, there were plenty of people who speculated that the shale industry would emerge stronger from it because of the incentives it would create to cut costs and improve operational efficiency. But according to David Hughes, a geoscientist who spent three decades working for the Geological Survey of Canada, they’re already at the point of diminishing returns on that front. That’s because, despite marginal improvements in drilling techniques and technology, there are only so many sweet spots in a given play where they can be put to work – and producers are running out of them.