U.S. oil producers are raising capital spending and activity this year, but they have to contend with surging inflation as cost pressures intensify. While oil production growth picked up the pace in the fourth quarter, costs jumped sharply for a third consecutive quarter to a record-high reading among oilfield services firms “suggestive of significant cost pressures,” the Dallas Fed Energy Survey for Q4 found. In 2022, part of the higher capital spending in the U.S. oil industry will be because of cost inflation. This will not be the...