"By causing the oil price to crash, the Saudis and their Gulf allies have certainly killed off prospects for a raft of high-cost ventures in the Russian Arctic, the Gulf of Mexico, the deep waters of the mid-Atlantic, and the Canadian tar sands.
Consultants Wood Mackenzie say the major oil and gas companies have shelved 46 large projects, deferring $US200 billion ($272 billion) of investments.
The problem for the Saudis is that US shale frackers are not high-cost.
"They are mostly mid-cost, and as I reported from the CERAWeek energy forum in Houston, experts at IHS think shale companies may be able to shave those costs by 45 per cent this year - and not only by switching tactically to high-yielding wells."
Advanced pad drilling techniques allow frackers to launch five or ten wells in different directions from the same site.
Smart drill-bits with computer chips can seek out cracks in the rock.
New dissolvable plugs promise to save $US300,000 a well.
"We've driven down drilling costs by 50 per cent, and we can see another 30 per cent ahead," said John Hess, head of the Hess Corporation.
It was the same story from Scott Sheffield, head of Pioneer Natural Resources.
"We have just drilled an 18,000 foot well in 16 days in the Permian Basin.
