Don't know about the Permian but in the eastern gas fracking belt, a huge amount of the blown cash was sunk in a long time ago with the race to lock up land leases.
Those costs are sunk but current prices do exceed the marginal cost of drilling w/o the land acquisition costs. Old story, like farming. Any amount over the variable cost and you keep doing it.
I don't know how many years' worth of production are locked up but when that runs out it will require another sustained price spike to keep it going.
As I said, there's really no logical reason to have to go through another one of those cycles. Unless you're a landowner in that belt and missed the first boom.
