I think the attraction of shale to the oil E&P's is pretty obvious. Each well is not that big but the hit percentage is extremely high. Why risk a $25-200 million dry hole with a 25-50% hit rate when you can hit 95% onshore in small increments?
Even if you hit offshore, you might have to spend another huge amount of money and time to hook up your well. Connection time onshore is days/weeks instead of years and cheap.
Of course, with current pricing, any new well doesn't look very good. We'll see how shale recovers from the current mess. I am guessing that E&P's will crank up shale as soon as prices move up. The best shale acreage has been tied up so shallow offshore may look more appealing rather than try marginal shale acreage.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
