It’s Hard Playing Catch-Up to US Shale

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

Feb 14, 2015

 

In less than a decade the U.S. has ditched concerns over increasing oil imports in favor of debates over whether or not to lift the crude export ban. Fracking has set off an energy revolution here in America, and the rest of the world is keen to get in on the action. But, as the EIA reports, only three other countries are managing to commercially produce hydrocarbons from shale:

 

(Snip)

 

The kinds of shale production numbers Canada, China, and Argentina are reporting pale in comparison to the mighty American renaissance. The difficulty other countries are having in replicating the U.S. experience pays tribute to the remarkably long list of favorable conditions that allowed the shale boom to ignite here in the first place.

 

From favorable mineral rights to large pools of capital, from an already robust pipeline infrastructure to evenly layered geology, the U.S. seemingly had all of the parts of the shale equation already in place. And as other countries with large shale deposits lag behind in getting their own production up and running, the more providential—and singular—the American shale boom looks.