BELEAGUERED US SHALE COMPANIES

Pain is quickly growing more acute in the new year at beleaguered U.S. shale companies as a global supply glut sinks crude further to 11-year lows, putting added financial stress on the most heavily indebted.
Debt and equity investors have all but given up on the exploration and production sector as oil prices tumble lower. In the last year, the SIG index of oil companies .EPX fell 42 percent, compared with a 0.6 percent decline in the Standard & Poor's 500 index .SPX.