Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-043038/https://www.ft.com/content/cd7c043a-1983-4106-b4f9-13d66f951faf

US shale oil producers are facing their gravest threat in years, as a sudden crude price sell-off triggered by Donald Trump’s trade war has pushed parts of the sector to the brink of failure, executives have warned.

US oil prices have fallen 12 per cent since Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcement last week, leaving them below the level many producers in Texas say they need to break even — and sparking fears the industry could be forced to idle rigs.

Opec’s recent decision to raise production has also raised alarm bells.

“This reminds me exactly of Covid,” said Kirk Edwards, president of Latigo Petroleum, an independent producer based in Odessa, Texas, referring to the 2020 price crash that brought a wave of bankruptcies across the shale sector. (…)