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Shale Revolution News

11 Mar 2026

Iran War Exposes Risks of Fossil Fuel Dependence

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The economic risks of the world’s heavy dependence on oil and gas have been laid bare twice in four years - first with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now with the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran - undermining U.S. President Donald Trump’s flagship push to double down on fossil fuels.The dramatic supply disruptions and price spikes unleashed by the latest Middle East conflict are likely to harden the resolve of many governments to accelerate the drive for greater energy self‑sufficiency…

09 Dec 2025

U.S. Oil Production Still has Growth Potential

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Crude oil production in the United States is booming, reports Poten & Partners in its weekly opinion.According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil reached 13.8 Million barrels per day (Mb/d) in September 2025, a remarkable recovery since bottoming out in 2008 below 5 Mb/d.The shale oil boom was primarily responsible for this turnaround. The decision to allow crude oil exports from the U.S. at the end of 2015 also contributed, because it made U.S. crude accessible to the international market. This export access converged U.S.

01 Jul 2025

Oil Supply to Outpace Demand in Medium-Term

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The IEA’s medium-term outlook sees global oil supply increase set to far outpace demand growth in coming years.With intensifying geopolitical strains and heightened uncertainty about global economic prospects, oil markets are undergoing structural changes as the key drivers of supply and demand growth of the past 15 years start to fade, according to the latest edition of the IEA’s medium-term outlook.According to the report, China – which has driven the growth in global oil demand for well over a decade – is set to see its consumption peak in 2027…

20 Feb 2023

US LNG Producers Poised to Leapfrog Rivals with Three New Projects

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At least three proposed U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants have likely found enough customers to receive financial approvals this year, according to Reuters calculations, developments that would make the country the world's largest LNG exporter for years to come.After a dearth of plant approvals last decade, developers have secured dozens of long-term contracts to finance new multibillion-dollar LNG plants. The pace of approvals has accelerated as Europe has shifted…

29 Jul 2020

US-China Cold War Would Redirect Energy Flows

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Worsening diplomatic relations between the United States and China are putting a spotlight on their economic inter-dependency in the context of global supply chains for both technology and energy.Top policymakers in the United States and some of its closest allies, including Australia and Britain, have recently hardened the language in which they describe relations with China.China has been labelled a “strategic competitor” for some time but the country is increasingly described as a “strategic adversary” implying a more confrontational relationship.Complaints about unfair trade practices…

12 Feb 2020

US Seaborne Crude Oil Exports Up 51%

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December could boast another all-time high for US seaborne crude oil exports, totaling 13.9 million metric toes and exceeding the previous October record by almost a million metric tons. In 2019, 133 million metric tons of sweet US crude oil was exported by sea, a 51% increase from 2018.Due to the US shale revolution, the country became a net seaborne crude oil exporter in October 2019, and the record-breaking exports in December solidified the trend, as imports for the month amounted to 11.5 million metric tons crude oil.

25 Oct 2019

Reaping Wind at Sea: A $1 Trillion Industry

File Image (Credit Sparrow Group)

Offshore wind could become a cornerstone of the world's power supply as steep cost reductions and improved technology unleash the potential of the green energy source, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday.Renewables replacing fossil fuel is crucial to meet a globally-agreed goal of limiting temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius this century and the expansion of offshore wind could avoid 5-7 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions from the power sector globally, said the IEA.Power generated from wind turbines at sea only accounts for 0.3% of global electricity generation today…

18 Oct 2019

Canadian E.Coast LNG Export Plans Progress Shell Deal

Pieridae Energy moved closer to building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal on Canada's East Coast after taking ownership of fields from Royal Dutch Shell which will feed gas into the plant, the company said.The Goldboro LNG terminal would be the first on Canada's East Coast and compete with the growing number of plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast, hoping its shorter distance to Europe and further west will help sell its LNG by cutting shipping costs.Pieridae said in a statement late on Thursday it had closed a C$190 million ($145 million) acquisition of Shell's gas assets in Alberta's Foothills region, giving it most of the gas…

12 Aug 2019

PetroLogistics Contract Goes to McDermott

Texas-based PetroLogistics II, a portfolio company of Quantum Energy Partners, has awarded McDermott International, Inc. a contract to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) services for a new U.S. Gulf Coast propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant.Under the scope of the contract, McDermott will assist in the development of a PDH plant to be constructed on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The plant has a design basis of 500 KTA."McDermott is pleased to be working with PetroLogistics II in the development of a facility that will support the growth of propylene in the U.S.," said Mark Coscio, McDermott's Senior Vice President for North, Central and South America.

05 Aug 2019

Investments in Exploration Drilling to Double

Rystad Energy sees investments both in offshore and onshore exploration drilling doubling in the next five years, compared to the last five years. Conventional onshore demand will be driven by Asia, Africa and South America.Europe on the other hand, will be a hot spot for offshore exploration, led by investments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, the energy research and business intelligence company said.In the past few years conventional exploration drilling has been on a rocky road, dropping from 3000 exploration wells drilled in 2012 down to just 900 wells in 2016 – a whopping 70% decrease.Exploration has been constrained not only by lower oil prices…

08 May 2019

800bln Undiscovered Barrels of Oil and Gas Exist Globally

Total greenfield project sanctioning, summed up to the present day, only accounts for 40% of estimated volumes of offshore projects ever being sanctioned, said Rystad Energy, the  energy research and consultancy headquartered in Norway."Likewise, the brownfield market has only begun, with total historical expenditures accounting for only about 20% of estimated brownfield spend over the projects lifetime, leaving 80% of brownfield spending to the future. And the decommissioning market is still in its nascent form,” says Audun Martinsen, head of oilfield services research at Rystad Energy.It estimates that around 800 billion undiscovered barrels of oil and gas equivalents exist globally…

11 Mar 2019

US to Lead Oil Supply Growth to 2024

The United States is set to drive the global oil supply growth over the next 5 years, thanks to the strength of its shale industry, triggering a rapid transformation of world oil markets, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).IEA said that oil exports from the United States will overtake Russia and close in on Saudi Arabia, bringing greater diversity of supply, by the end of the forecast.While global oil demand growth is set to ease, in particular as China slows down, it still increases an annual average of 1.2 mb/d to 2024, according to the report, Oil 2019. Still, the IEA continues to see no peak in oil demand, as petrochemicals and jet fuel remain the key drivers of growth…

06 Dec 2018

The Tipping Point: U.S. Exports more Oil than it Imports

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The United States last week exported more crude oil and fuel than it imported for the first time on record, underscoring the nation's growing influence as a supplier of oil to the world.Exports of crude surged in the week to Nov. 30 to more than 3.2 million barrels per day, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.When adding in all imports and exports of crude and refined products, for the week the U.S. exported a net 211,000 bpd – the first time that has happened, according to U.S.

08 Feb 2018

Texas Flood: U.S. Oil Pours into Global Markets

United States taking share from OPEC nations in Asia, Europe, as China’s biggest U.S. crude buyer to double imports. In the two years since Washington lifted a 40-year ban on oil exports, tankers filled with U.S. crude have landed in more than 30 countries, ranging from massive economies like China and India to tiny Togo. The repeal has unleashed a flood of U.S. shale oil, undercutting global crude prices, eroding the clout of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and seizing market share from many of its member countries. In 2005, before the shale revolution, the United States had net imports of 12.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuels - compared to just 4 million bpd today. U.S.

10 Jan 2018

Trump Offshore Oil Proposal Could Unlock 65 Bln BOE

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The Trump administration's proposal to open up almost all of U.S. offshore waters to oil and gas drilling could unlock up to 65 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), attracting billions of dollars in investment, consultancy Rystad Energy said. Last week, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said a draft program would make over 90 percent of the outer continental shelf's total acreage available for leasing to drillers, a national record. "Looking purely at areas that are potentially going to come out of restriction…

10 Oct 2017

Corpus Christi: Energy Port of the Americas

(Image Courtesy Port of Corpus Christi)

The Port of Corpus Christi lives up to its moniker ‘Energy Port of the Americas,’ as the movement of energy in and out dominates the port’s history and future. John P. LaRue, Executive Director, Port Corpus Christi recently visited Maritime Reporter’s headquarters in New York to discuss the nearly $50 billion in investment projects driving the port forward. “Let’s just start with what we are and what we are not,” said LaRue. “We are not a container port. Up until a few years ago we were an oil import port (serving) three refineries: Citgo, Valero and Flint Hills Resources.

12 Apr 2017

New US Pipelines to Drive Natural Gas Boom as Exports Surge

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U.S. energy firms are scrambling to finish a slew of pipelines that will unleash rich reserves of shale gas in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio as the nation prepares to become one of the world’s top natural gas exporters. The pipelines are expected to boost output from shale fields in the three states by giving producers access to new domestic and international markets. Those states could supply about a third of all U.S. natural gas once the pipeline expansion is complete, up from about 25 percent now, according to projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

21 Mar 2017

US O&G Industry Reaps the Benefits of International Trade

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Rising exports have thrown a lifeline to U.S. shale producers and refiners, giving them an additional outlet at a time when the domestic market has been at risk of becoming saturated. The United States exported record quantities of natural gas, propane, gasoline, distillate fuel oil and light crude last year while continuing to import the heavy oils needed by its refineries. Gas exports increased by almost 30 percent in 2016 and have more than tripled in the last decade, limiting the build up of unused gas and supporting prices in recent months despite the warmest winter on record.

06 Mar 2017

FLNG Production Bows out as US Exports Roil Market

File photo : Shell

Once considered the future of gas production, floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) projects have been firmly relegated to the backburner as global gas producers seek cheaper ways to compete with a surge in U.S. shale supplies and slumping prices. FLNG projects - mega tankers fitted with gas extraction and liquefaction facilities - allow producers to tap offshore gas wells and ship LNG without having to build costly pipelines to onshore plants. Owners can move the vessels to new fields when production at an old one ends, slashing asset end-of-life costs.

29 Jul 2016

First US LNG Shipment Goes to China

Maran Gas Apollonia transiting the Expanded Panama Canal's Cocoli Locks (Photo: Panama Canal Authority)

The first liquefied natural gas vessel from the lower 48 U.S. states is on its way to China, according to a Reuters interactive map on Friday, the latest sign that the expanded Panama Canal is allowing U.S. exports to reach the world's top LNG buyers in Asia. Royal Dutch Shell's Maran Gas Apollonia loaded up with gas at Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana, the map showed. It passed through the canal earlier this week and was moving northwest up the west coast of Mexico on Friday afternoon.

21 Jul 2016

First U.S. LNG shipment to cross expanded Panama Canal

The United States will ship its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo through an expanded Panama Canal next week. The waterway shaves distances between export plants dotted along the Gulf of Mexico and Asia to 9,000 miles from 16,000, allowing U.S. producers to better compete in one of the world's biggest gas consuming markets. The size of most LNG tankers had previously prevented them from squeezing through, forcing them to sail around South America instead. Royal Dutch Shell's Maran Gas Apollonia tanker loaded up at Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana and will arrive at the Panama Canal on July 25, according to Kpler LNG, a shipping analysis firm. Shipping data shows the vessel to be heading in the direction of Panama.

20 Apr 2016

Algerian Crude Returns to US East Coast

Phillips 66 has purchased a cargo of Algerian crude oil for its Bayway refinery in New Jersey for the first time since 2013, two sources said, the latest U.S. refiner on the East Coast to shun domestic crudes in favor of cheaper imports. The rare shipment suggests East Coast refiners are ramping up efforts that started in the past year to shift to a diet of foreign crudes as the era of cheaper domestic supplies continues to fade. A Panamax-sized vessel named Energy Century carrying about 433,000 barrels of Saharan Blend crude oil arrived in New York Harbor on Monday after leaving the Algerian port of Skikda on March 29, according to Reuters Eikon shipping data. BP was listed as the charterer, shipping records show. The oil, which is very similar to U.S.

08 Oct 2015

Amid Commodity Crisis, LPG Emerges as Accidental Bright-spot

Liquefied Petroleum Gas, long a niche product used by the poor to cook and the rich to barbecue, has become a rare bright spot amid a broad commodities rout, riding on the wave of strong economic growth in India and parts of Southeast Asia. LPG is best known to consumers as propane or butane used in heating appliances and vehicles. But it is also used in the petrochemicals industry and the electricity sector, acting as a replacement for diesel in generators and power stations. While tumbling prices for oil, gas, coal and industrial metals have seen energy companies and miners slash capital expenditure, investment is flowing into the LPG sector to feed burgeoning demand from the world's poorer nations.