This shouldn't make sense. Oil production in the U.S. is growing very rapidly, but the number of rigs in use is on a steady decline. Was this shale oil and gas thing just a flash in the pan? Not quite. Thanks to better technology and smarter drilling techniques, exploration and production companies are learning how to do more with less.
Not only does this bode well for future of exploration and production, but it also makes us change the way that we measure the industry as well. Rather than focusing on tried and true measures like rig count, new metrics may give us a more accurate way of looking at the shale drilling phenomenon. Tune into the video below where Fool.com contributors Tyler Crowe and Aimee Duffy take a look at some of the new ways to look at the industry.
