FINANCIAL TIMES: US crude oil production will come close to its record highs in just three years time as the shale boom sends output soaring, according to the government’s Energy Information Administration.
The prediction, made in the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook, shows how improvements in the techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – “fracking” – made economic by higher oil prices have unlocked oil and gas reserves that were not previously commercially viable..
For natural gas, meanwhile, the EIA is predicting continued indefinite growth in production. Gas is easier to produce than oil from shale and other “tight” rocks, and by 2040 the EIA expects US production to be 56 per cent higher than in 2012… (more)
