Shale’s Bust Shows Basis of Boom: Debt, Debt and Debt: QuickTake

America’s shale boom once looked like one of the century’s great business success stories. Now some of its most iconic names are in bankruptcy court and we’re not done yet. But while Covid-19 and the biggest-ever crude crunch it brought may have been the last straw, the sector’s weaknesses extend back many years, as U.S. oil and gas companies ran up over $300 billion in losses since 2010. Here’s a look at what went wrong and what the fallout might be.