US Shale Bosses Say Industry Is ‘Broken’
Commenters Warn That Trump Policy Missteps Are Hurting World’s Biggest Oil Producer
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The U.S. oil and gas industry is taking its private backlash against President Donald Trump’s energy agenda to the next level, warning that policy missteps are hurting the world’s biggest oil producer.
The criticism was revealed Sept. 24 in the latest energy survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The quarterly publication is widely read within the energy sector and features anonymous, unfiltered comments from respondents working at production and service companies.
“The U.S. shale business is broken,” one of those respondents was quoted as saying. “What was once the world’s most dynamic energy engine has been gutted by political hostility and economic ignorance.”
Some experts are predicting that the global oil market is headed for a glut as OPEC+ members continue pumping more and Trump encourages a flood of U.S. production, underpinning his quest for “energy dominance.” As a result, oil prices have been steadily falling. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, is down almost 10% in 2025 and traded on Sept. 24 under $65 a barrel.
“We have begun the twilight of shale,” one executive was quoted as saying in the Dallas Fed report. “The U.S. isn’t running out of oil, but she sure is running out of $60 per barrel oil.”
The comments against Trump’s policies have been a regular feature in the survey for months, but the latest publication marked an escalation in tone and warning for the future. The executives cited Trump’s steel tariffs and his administration’s abrupt shifts in energy policy as battering a sector he pledged to help. They also lowered their view on oil prices.
WTI is expected to close out 2025 at $63 a barrel, according to the average answer from executives at 136 oil and gas firms from across the Southwest. That’s a 7.4% cut to their forecast from more than two months earlier.
“Day-to-day changes to energy policy is no way for us to win as a country,” one respondent was quoted as saying in the survey. Investors are avoiding the energy sector due to “the ‘stroke of pen’ risk that the federal government wields as it relates to long duration energy developments.”
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The Dallas Fed’s region encompasses Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico. The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. has dropped 13% so far this year, according to Baker Hughes Co.
“The downward pressure on oil prices coupled with continued tightness in finding qualified labor in remote locations continues to pressure profitability and dividends,” a respondent was quoted as saying in the report.
