King Resources Inc (KRFG)

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Publicly-traded independent oil producers are set to make record profits in 2021.

With oil prices rising to levels not seen in over two years, US shale, bouncing off one of its worst-ever years, could be looking at record profits in 2021.

Oil prices have seen an incredible rebound over the course of this year. Oil prices have not only recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but they’re also at their highest mark in over two years thanks to tightening supply spurred by people getting back on the road in a big way, OPEC staying the course in terms of promised production caps, and a retreating US dollar value. What’s really unbelievable about this year’s projected oil producer payouts, however, is not just that they’ll be high, but that they’ll shatter the ceiling and set an all-time record. They’ll be $37 billion higher than in 2008 when oil prices hit an all-time high around $150 a barrel of crude.

Overall, the combined free cash flow from the oil production sector is expected to balloon to a whopping, never-before-seen $348 billion, blowing past 2008’s then-record of $311 billion. “Key to the turnaround is US shale, with the industry expected to reverse years of losses in 2021 and make ‘super profits’ of nearly $60 billion of free cash flow before hedges,” Bloomberg reported this week.