Unconventional natural gas production is proving to be more durable than many people expected, officials said as the Potential Gas Committee released its 2014 yearend report indicating that the US has a record 2,515 tcf technically recoverable gas resource base.

Ever since the exponential boom of light tight oil (LTO) production flowing from the major shale plays began, American refineries have worked vigorously to process greater LTO volumes. Now a new report has stated that the load is beginning to become a burden, and the cheapest options for refineries to take on the growing amounts of LTO are over.

Chevron abandoned Australian shale exploration and said it will sell its 50% stake in that nation’s largest oil refiner. Chevron notified Beach Energy, its partner in the central Australian shale project, that “the opportunity does not align strategically” with the US explorer’s portfolio, according to a statement from Beach. Selling its half of refiner Caltex Australia is expected to yield about A$4.7 billion ($3.7 billion.)

In the boom years of the US shale oil industry, profitability was something of an optional extra. Companies were focused on growth, it was easy to raise capital, and making a decent return on investment could be put off for another day.

OPEC and lower global oil prices delivered a one-two punch to the drillers in North Dakota and Texas who brought the U.S. one of the biggest booms in the history of the global oil industry.

Capital spending budgets are being cut back, drilling rigs idled and staff laid off. The remarkable growth of US oil production, which brought more than 1m barrels per day of additional supply on to world markets in each of the past three years, seems likely to flatten out this year.

The world may run on oil, but the oil industry runs on money. The US shale boom would not have been possible without a huge inflow of capital: the small to midsized companies that led the revolution raised $875bn from syndicated loans, bonds and equities in 2007-14, 83 per cent of it in debt, according to Dealogic.

Whiting Petroleum, the largest oil producer in the Bakken shale of North Dakota, has hired bankers to seek potential buyers after coming under financial pressure due to plummeting crude prices, according to people familiar with the matter.

EOG Resources, the largest US shale oil producer, expects its rapid production growth of recent years to come to a halt in 2015, in the starkest sign yet of how weak crude prices are hitting the industry. The company told analysts on a call on Thursday that it was “intentionally choosing returns over growth”.

BP DOESN’T SEE SIGNIFICANT SHALE GAS PRODUCTION IN EUROPE BY 2035