What is the US shale oil boom?

The boom in production of oil and natural gas from shale formations became a significant factor after 2008. Figure 1 shows that rising energy prices and the shale boom led to strong growth of U.S. oil and gas employment from 2005 to 2011. read more

This graph of US oil production from 1920 to 2015 sums up the oil shale boom. You'll notice that oil production peaks around 1972 - this is the Hubbert peak theory, where in 1952 M. King Hubbert predicted that without any technological changes, US oil production would peak in the 1970s. read more

In 2007, shale gas fields included the #2 (Barnett/Newark East) and #13 (Antrim) sources of natural gas in the United States in terms of gas volumes produced. The number of unconventional natural gas wells in the US rose from 18,485 in 2004 to 25,145 in 2007 and is expected to continue increasing until about 2040. read more

Drilling intensity in U.S. shale oil plays skyrocketed from a few hundred wells brought online (e.g., becoming productive) before 2011 to more than 4,000 in 2012 – a figure that outpaces the total number of oil and gas wells (both conventional and unconventional) brought online in the same year in the rest of the world (except Canada). read more