Shale plays, once fully delineated, all end up incorporating the same features of true manufacturing operations. Thus, when both ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CHV) issued this week’s announcements that their companies would deploy a high percentage of their respective capital budgets in the coming years in efforts to dramatically increase their production from their Permian Basin operations, it did not represent a new concept for the U.S. oil industry. It’s just that these two major, fully-integrated companies have the ability to conduct such operations on a far grander scale.

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