Shale firms pump hedge books for liquidity lifeline

Lucrative hedge portfolios offer promise of cash but unlocking residual value won’t be simple

US shale companies, reeling from rock-bottom oil prices and the demand shock of Covid-19, are hoping to access a new source of cash in a bid for survival. It isn’t an untapped oil reserve or extraction method, but their bulging hedge books.

Shale producers are some of the most heavily hedged firms in the oil and gas industry. The 45% drop in the price of crude since the start of March means shale companies are sitting on aggregate mark-to-market hedging gains of hundreds of billions of dollars