I really can't put this any simpler. Shale companies are burning cash for expansion - which even the NY Times article that billy linked stated.
"Energy companies were major issuers of junk bonds to finance expansion."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/business/energy-environment/coronavirus-oil-companies-debt.html
Billy links an OPINION piece on oil prices in 2018 where the guy predicted oil prices reaching $70/bbl and staying there. He was wrong and he tries to justify it by blaming Trump.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Why-Oil-Prices-Rose-And-Crashed-In-2018.amp.html
Billy uses this justification to infer that TWO YEARS LATER, despite increased production, increased investments in machinery, pipelines, and land acquisition, increased global market share, and steady prices of over $50/bbl., that Trump's policies put shale companies in a poor position to handle an unforeseen and unprecedented event like the coronavirus pandemic where oil inventories were stock full and oil producers across the globe were paying people to take the product out of their hands.
It is truly one of the dumbest arguments you will see on a forum. Companies routinely burn cash to invest in growth. Uber has burned $7 billion to fight legal bills, legislation, and cab companies - expenses that yield absolutely no assets. They have a software platform to show for it while shale companies are investing in tangible assets with value. The fundamentals of building a company are no different from industry to industry. That's why many executives are able to switch industries today. There are only so many ways for a company to generate capital to fund these expansion investments.
Apparently, billy thinks that sanctions are the reason for supply and demand and has no idea how real markets actually work. Sanctions are put in place for political reasons. Not economic. And they do nothing but reduce supply for competitors where they are put in place.
The price of a barrel of oil is determined by GLOBAL supply and demand and when companies who are burning cash run into a crisis like the coronavirus where demand and subsequently price bottoms, they are more at risk than companies with a healthy balance sheet. That has NOTHING to do with sanctions from two years ago. It has to do with companies using their revenue to borrow and expand as quickly as possible. Had those companies made more money in that time, they would have almost certainly invested in even more production capacity and been in the exact same spot.
Of course when you're someone like billy who pounds rocks all day and has no concept of economics in even the slightest capacity, you'd be too stupid to comprehend that the production increases of the shale industry itself contributes to lower prices on a supply and demand curve.
But that's what you get in a forum. People like billy who have no idea what they're even reading thinking they have a clue.