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  3. It is a blazing morning in the Permian basin, in west Texas, America’s most productive oilfield. On the high plains a rig gnaws

It is a blazing morning in the Permian basin, in west Texas, America’s most productive oilfield. On the high plains a rig gnaws

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问题    It is a blazing morning in the Permian basin, in west Texas, America’s most productive oilfield. On the high plains a rig gnaws at rock more than 3, 000 feet (0.9km) underground. When the drill bit reaches about a mile and a half in depth, nearly six times the height of the Empire State Building, it will munch its way sideways for another two miles. Then comes the interesting part. After completing one horizontal well, the towering rig will rise virtually intact, shuffle forward for about an hour, then prepare to drill again.
   Such walking rigs are one way that Concho Resources, the company which owns the well, seeks to extract more oil, more efficiently. Concho is not alone. The shale industry has made America the world’s top producer of crude oil. But as the world becomes more dependent on American oil, American oil is becoming more dependent on the Permian Basin, which spans about 75, 000 square miles across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. On the surface, the natural landscape is all but barren. But underground lies layer upon layer of shale rich with oil and gas. A geological millefeuille. The region accounted for 30% of America’s oil production in July, up from 23% two years earlier.
   The Permian and other American shale basins had already been drilled for decades using conventional wells. Then after the financial crisis of 2007-08 low interest rates helped companies deploy new techniques on well after well: they drilled horizontally, then pummeled shale with sand and water, a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or tracking, until the rock relinquished its oil and gas.
   Because about 80% of a shale well’s production occurs within two years of tracking, firms kept buying oil rights and drilling. In 2014 the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), fed up with giddy American production, declined to curb its own output. Having soared to $115 in June 2014, the price of Brent crude oil plunged to $29 a barrel in January 2016. Since 2015 Texas alone has seen 71 bankruptcies of exploration-and-production firms, says Haynes and Boone, a law firm.
   As a result, investors’ appetite for growth for growth’s sake has waned. Shale companies now claim to have changed how they operate. Take Pioneer Natural Resources. In 2015 David Einhorn, a prominent short-seller, unkindly labelled Pioneer a "mother-fracker" for its profligate ways. Today Timothy Dove, the firm’s chief executive, tempers his bullishness about the Permian with more attention to costs. Pioneer is selling assets so it can center its business entirely in the Permian, where Mr. Dove says he can drill most economically. Executives are being paid for returns as well as rising output.
   Companies such as Pioneer and Concho are also revising techniques in the field.
   Fracking recovers only about 8-10% of oil in shale. "If you can actually go from 10% to 12%, that’s a 20% increase in the amount of oil you’re recovering, " says Mr. Dove. So firms are drilling several wells on a single site, to reduce drilling time and costs, and then blasting wells with more water and sand, to extract more oil. Concho is continuously testing optimal ways to frack, for instance by targeting one section of a well, then a section of another nearby, then returning to the first well for more fracking.
   However, investment discipline remains patchy. According to analysis by Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, which examined the most recent quarterly results of American exploration and production companies, nine of the biggest dozen firms, including Concho and Pioneer, had cashflow from operations that exceeded capital spending (and Pioneer, just barely). Among the dozen smallest companies reviewed, only three earned more than they spent.
   Even with high oil prices, now at around $80, the industry faces new pressures. Pipelines from the Permian are jammed with crude. New ones will open late next year, yet other problems will persist. Oil service firms slashed their rates after the most recent crash, but those prices are creeping up. Mr. Trump’s tariffs on imported steel will make equipment more expensive. The cost of hiring and housing workers is soaring.
What can be inferred from the analysis of quarterly results of American exploration and production companies by Sanford C. Bernstein?
选项 A、Most companies had earned more than they spent.
B、Most big companies spent more than they earned.
C、Pioneer only earned more than it spent by a narrow margin.
D、Most small companies earned more than they spent.
答案C
解析 本题可定位至第7段。第7段的大意为：根据研究公司Sanford C．Bernstein对美国勘探和生产公司最新季度业绩的分析，包括Concho和Pioneer在内的最大的十几家公司中有9家的现金流超过了资本支出(先锋公司勉强超过)；在接受调查的十几家规模最小的公司中，只有3家公司的收入高于其投入。由段意可知，十几家大公司中只有9家收入高于投入，十几家小公司中只有3家收入高于投入，因此A项“大部分公司收入高于投入”、B项“大部分大公司投入高于收入”、D项“大部分小公司收入高于投入”均错误。C项“先锋公司收入勉强高于投入”为正确选项。
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