“Drill, Baby Drill!”

Fracking Is Turning The US Into A Bigger Oil Producer Than Saudi Arabia -- David Usborne, The Independent

The expansion in volumes of oil and gas produced by hydraulic fracturing is taking experts and politicians by surprise, with profound consequences for US geopolitics, and even Europe’s reliance on Russian gas.

Hector Gallegos sits in the cab of his pick-up enjoying a few hours of calm. A day earlier, workers finished carting off the huge rig that had drilled three new wells beneath this small patch of south Texas farmland and he’s now getting ready to prime them for production. He reckons that about three weeks from now each will be producing 1,000 to 2,000 barrels a day. “That’s money!” he exclaims with a broad smile.

It’s also power, and not in the combustion sense. Thanks to the success of engineers like Mr Gallegos in pushing the frontiers of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, to access reserves of oil trapped in shale formations, notably here in Texas and North Dakota, America is poised to displace Saudi Arabia as the world’s top producer. With that could come a hobbling of Opec and unforeseen shifts in US foreign policy.

Read more ....

My Comment: I have always put my investments in the energy business (starting with Canada's oil sands in the late 1990s) .... and I have always stayed on top on what was happening in the energy markets. But I will confess that I never saw the fracking revolution coming .... not even a hint. And the fact that the U.S. is now a bigger oil producer than Saudi Arabia .... LOL .... I would have been laughed out of a room if I had predicted that 5 years ago.

Update: If you have the time .... this fascinating post from the Atlantic outlines how the fracking revolution started .... The Remarkable Story On How Fracking Changed The World's Energy Outlook.