First, Benjamin Shattuck of Wood Mackenzie disagrees with accusations that the U.S. oil and gas sector has not responded to the elevated global demand for energy. "Obviously, the rig count has increased," Shattuck said at a recent industry event. The North American rig count is up 28% so far in 2022, with oil rigs rising 23.5% and natural gas rigs, a whopping 46.7%, according to the Baker Hughes weekly data. Still, the U.S. upstream sector has lost some of its 2015 to 2019 shale boom swagger. At a quarterly oil markets event hosted by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, Wood Mackenzie's research director for Americas upstream oil and gas said that, after spending 130% to 140% of cash flow on an annualized basis in the 2010s, "we came into this decade with, effectively, a financial hangover. After years of talking about capital discipline, we started to see some of that being implemented in the end of' 19 coming through '20."
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