One of the more costly things in any commodity industry is inconsistency as noted by a tendency to succumb to "this time it is different". Harold Hamm, chairman of Continental Resources (CLR), appears to have succumbed to that habit in order to try to secure above-average profits.
The current adventure began with a lack of hedging in case the current downturn in industry pricing actually would happen. Once that downturn did happen, then he began to shut-in production until oil and gas prices improve. But Continental has not hedged its production. Therefore the decline of