re: Update, May crude oil futures now down to under $12

Can't tell if serious? What do you think caused the shift in investors looking for free cash flow instead of constantly outspending? Fracking being unsustainable in low price environments. Do you know how many producers there are (public and private) not named CVX, XOM, OXY, Shell, BP, etc? They can't make it through this. There are tons of private equity firms that can't raise new energy funds. Premiums producers would have to pay in the bond market to refinance their debt are sky high. Private companies can't go public. Tell me when the last E&P went public.

You have zero grasp of the financial market side of E&Ps. All of the money that allows these companies to do what they do has dried up and has been dry for more than a year.

I believe o&g is incredibly important to the US and even more so local economies, but that doesn't change the fact that money was running away from energy long before this crash.