Why Fracking Won’t Solve the Global Oil and Gas Squeeze

A tsunami of oil and gas from the technique called fracking has made the US the world’s biggest producer of both, giving the country the energy independence its leaders have sought for decades and upending the geopolitics of the world energy trade. Now, with the world crying out for more oil and gas, American frackers are theoretically in a position to provide it. Instead, they are riding the brakes, having changed their business models to focus on generating profits for investors rather than increasing production.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, was first used commercially in 1949 in the oil- and gas-rich US state of Oklahoma. The technique involves forcing water mixed with sand and chemicals into a well to create fissures in underground rocks known as shale so that oil or gas trapped inside can be captured. Advances in another technique, horizontal drilling, came in the early 1980s and opened up access to thin layers of shale deep underground. The subsequent exploitation of the Barnett Shale formation in Texas proved large-scale fracking was economically viable.