Are Shale Drillers ‘tapping the Brakes' as Boom Succumbs to Oil Price Slump?

Oil's bear market may finally be taking its toll on the shale boom.Hours after Halliburton Co. warned Monday that explorers are "tapping the brakes" on drilling, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said it's trimming spending in the first earnings report this quarter from a major shale producer.That could make this week a turning point for the troubled global oil market -- the moment when shale companies showed signs of bowing to the low prices they helped inflict. The surge in U.S. production this year has stymied efforts by OPEC and other major oil exporters to unwind a supply glut that's weighed on the crude market for three years."If Wall Street rewards them for being more reserved with their activity levels and capital expenditures, then maybe it catches on," Mike Kelly, a Houston-based analyst for Seaport Global Securities LLC, said. If Anadarko shares suffer, on the other hand, "I think other people will be reticent about coming out and saying, 'we're cutting as well.'"The initial returns were mixed for Anadarko, one of the biggest oil and natural-gas explorers in the U.S. The Woodlands-based company slumped in after-hours trading on Monday, when it also announced a loss for the second quarter.The shares rose 1.7 percent to $44.98 at 9:55 a.m. in New York Tuesday amid a rally in global crude prices. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, rose 2 percent to $47.25 in New York.  Continue reading...