I'd love to see an unbiased analysis of the long-term economics of an individual shale well. There's some data that indicates volumes drop off pretty dramatically over time at the individual well level. If this is true, then it requires perpetual investment of new capital in new wells just to maintain constant production volumes. The public data isn't great because old wells are mixed in with new wells and so it's ha…
I discussed a few years ago this with my brother who's working in the oil industry. And he said that much, this type of well have much shorter lifespan than traditional oil well and new wells are required every few years. Of course it's just an anecdote from someone who's not even involved in that part of the industry, so take it with a grain of salt.