Houston — Vastly slower US oil growth in 2020 and the prospect of a plateau for the world’s top oil producer have signalled a new and unfamiliar era of self-restraint for the go-go shale industry.

Spending cuts and production declines common to shale wells mean US output growth is expected to brake from 2019’s pace that pushed domestic production past 13-million barrels per day (bpd). Some analyst forecasts for 2021 call for growth to slow, potentially to a rate of just 100,000 new bpd...

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