Overexpansion pressures tempt firms again

With oil prices at levels not even dreamed of in the past 5 years, and the promise of increased natural gas prices closer at hand, the temptation for independent energy producers to expand their horizons inevitably reawakens. This springs not only from the aggressiveness of oil and gas professionals, but also from the encouragement of government, financial institutions, and the public to do more to find new sources of domestic energy. Considering what the industry has been through in the past few years, it may seem inconceivable that investors will ever again be pushing money into the upstream energy business, but the pressures to expand will return as better prices stay around long enough to be believed.