Independent drillers set up to take the fall as shale bubble bursts

“Shale drillers squeeze costs as era of exploration ends”: Bloomberg. : Jeremy Leggett's Triple Crunch Log: "Independent U.S. oil and gas companies — those that focus on production and don’t refine crude into fuels and chemicals — ended 2012 with an average cash-flow deficit of $1.5 billion, compared with an average surplus of $386 million for the world’s biggest energy producers."