In September, according to the latest provisional figures produced by the US Energy Information Administration, the US exported more oil than it imported for the first time in the 70 years since records began.
The technology of fracking has led to the development first of shale gas and then of oil from shale rocks, raising total American oil production to an estimated 12.8m barrels a day for November — up by more than 3m b/d in just three years. Now total US production exceeds that of both Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The shale revolution has given new life to the US oil industry and brought a wave of new wealth and economic activity to the shale-producing regions — particularly in Texas and North Dakota. Shale gas has been widely substituted for coal — although 25 per cent of US electricity is still generated from domestic coal.The burden of oil has been removed from the trade balance.