Emerging problems are slowing growth.
The American energy boom can now be seen even from space. NASA images show the glowing lights of Minneapolis and Chicago, but to the west, in rural North Dakota, is another conglomeration of equally bright lights: some illuminate the drilling rigs for thousands of extraction wells, while others show that many companies are burning off huge quantities of methane gas, known as flaring, because they are only interested in the more profitable crude oil production.
This energy revolution is driven by shale: vast rock deposits impregnated with gas and oil, often buried up to a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Thanks to an extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, today these resources are in abundant supply at relatively low cost.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2013 American oil production reached an average of 7.5 million barrels a day, the highest since 1989. The 15% increase recorded last year is the biggest since 1940 and 83% of total production comes from growing activity in Texas and North Dakota, two US states with large shale formations.
If you want to read it all, purchase the entire issue in pdf for just three euro
The American energy boom can now be seen even from space. NASA images show the glowing lights of Minneapolis and Chicago, but to the west, in rural North Dakota, is another conglomeration of equally bright lights: some illuminate the drilling rigs for thousands of extraction wells, while others show that many companies are burning off huge quantities of methane gas, known as flaring, because they are only interested in the more profitable crude oil production.
This energy revolution is driven by shale: vast rock deposits impregnated with gas and oil, often buried up to a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Thanks to an extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, today these resources are in abundant supply at relatively low cost.
This content if for our subscribers
Subscribe for 1 year and gain unlimited access to all content on
eastwest.eu plus both the digital and the hard copy of the geopolitical magazine
Subscribe now €45
Gain 1 year of unlimited access to only the website and digital magazine
Subscribe now €20
