Via the Wall Street Journal:

  • American oil and gas companies have gone heavily into debt … increasing their borrowings by 55% since 2010, to almost $200 billion
  • Their need to service that debt helps explain why U.S. producers plan to continue pumping oil even as crude trades for less than $50 a barrel
  • But revenue growth hasn’t kept pace with borrowing
  • Energy analysts warn defaults could be coming, … industry is also expecting a wave of asset sales and consolidations

More at the article, but it is gated: Deep Debt Keeps Oil Firms Pumping

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Earlier today: