The Permian “Peak” That Isn’t

It finally happened — U.S. shale’s crown jewel has hit the number the doomers have been pointing to for years. The Permian Basin is set to produce a record 6.76 million bpd this month, and according to the EIA, that figure may stand as the basin’s all-time high. In any other oil province on the planet, that sort of declaration would cue the obituaries. But the Permian is not “any other basin,” and this is not a story of decline. It’s a story of mutation. What looks like a geological ceiling is, in reality, the…