Crude oil production fell 7.8 percent from April 2015 to average 8.9 million barrels per day in April, the lowest output level in 20 months. Natural gas liquids (NGL) production, a co-product of natural gas production, rose from prior year. NGL production in April averaged 3.3 million barrels per day, 0.7 percent higher than last year. This was the highest April output level on record.

U.S. Rig Count is down 2 rigs from last week to 404, with oil rigs unchanged at 318, gas rigs down 2 to 85, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1. Canadian Rig Count is up 1 rig from last week to 44, with oil rigs unchanged at 16, gas rigs up 1 to 27, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1.

"[Oil’s recent rise] is not enough," said Dicker. "You can’t find the financing to keep the lights on at $50 oil. Most of these guys won’t be able to keep the lights on at $65 or $70 oil."

Many companies on the teetering on the brink of insolvency find themselves buried under high interest rates and lack of deployable capital due to low commodity prices. Many banks have cut oil company credit lines as part of the semi-annual review by lenders. But the combined $8.9 billion in debt between the eighteen companies still looms ever menacingly in the background.

Crude oil production in June from the seven major US shale regions is expected to fall 113,000 b/d month-over-month to 4.85 million b/d. Gas production from the regions is forecast to fall 464 MMcfd.

Oil and gas producers depend largely on bank credit lines to run their businesses. Cmpanies getting ready to restructure are working closely with their bankers before filing for bankruptcy.

As the number of failed operators mounts, the surviving companies are laying the groundwork for what they forecast will be an era of slower but steadier growth in the state at the epicenter of the U.S.’s energy boom.

Including the assumption of CPG debt, the total enterprise value of the transaction is approximately $13 billion.

The pullout comes as crude oil prices have plummeted to less than half their June 2014 levels, forcing oil companies to slash spending. For Shell and ConocoPhillips, the decision to abandon Arctic acreage was formalized just before a May 1 due date to pay the U.S. government millions of dollars in rent to keep holdings in the Chukchi Sea north of Alaska.

The rout in crude prices is snowballing into one of the biggest avalanches in the history of corporate America, with 59 oil and gas companies now bankrupt after this week's filings for creditor protection by Midstates Petroleum MPOY.PK and Ultra Petroleum UPL.NL.

US commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased 2.8 million bbl for the week ended Apr. 29 compared with the previous week. The US Energy Information Administration estimated a total of 543.4 million bbl, which is historically high for this time of year.

China’s falling oil output and sliding U.S. production may help rebalance a market struggling to recover from the worst price crash in a generation

American LNG will be part of the approach towards diversification of sources of gas in Europe, in contrast to projects like Nord Stream 2 or the revived South Stream, which she said are not real sources of diversification.

Halliburton’s chief executive has blamed an increasingly difficult US regulatory climate for the collapse of his company’s $28bn bid for rival Baker Hughes, which was abandoned on Sunday.

U.S. Rig Count is down 11 rigs from last week to 420, with oil rigs down 11 to 332, gas rigs down 1 to 87, and miscellaneous rigs up 1 to 1. Canadian Rig Count is down 3 rigs from last week to 37, with oil rigs down 2 to 10, gas rigs down 1 to 26, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1.