Just How Important Is The U.S. Shale Industry?

In 2022, almost 7.8 million barrels of crude oil daily were produced from so-called tight oil resources. The other name for these is unconventional resources. Yet a third and a lot more popular name is shale. Shale is a porous rock that traps hydrocarbon molecules in its pores and makes their release tricky.

Or it used to be tricky. Back in the early 20th century, a technology called hydraulic fracturing was developed that allowed the extraction of those hydrocarbon molecules from the pores of the shale rock. Some trace the origins of fracking…