&gt; is still doing it at $35 a barrel<p>They&#x27;d still be doing it at <i>any</i> loss figure above operational costs to maintain cash flow. The cost to drill the well is already sunk. So it makes sense to operate the well at heavy loss. Some money is better than no money.<p>&gt; Either way I don&#x27;t think your point #2 works against anything I&#x27;ve mentioned.<p>My point was the economic reasons were why horizontal drilling became feasible. It could have been done in the eighties if oil prices were high enough back then.