The rest of the article is interesting.  It details some the challenges that large E&P companies have moving to shale.

Asking petroleum engineers and managers used to working offshore and on complex engineering megaprojects, the equivalent of building Ferraris, to start developing shale plays, the equivalent of building VW Golfs, was never going to work.

BP's decision to form a separate business to manage its onshore oil and gas assets in the U.S. Lower 48 states acknowledges shale production is more like a manufacturing process than traditional petroleum exploration.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/column-bp-acknowledges-u-shale-135930...