A fracking boom made the US the world’s biggest oil producer. Now its end is pushing gas prices much higher – By Ben Winck (Business Insider) / June 11, 2022
- Fracking lifted the US energy sector to unprecedented highs in the 2010s. It’s now a major hurdle.
- The fracking boom was slowing before the pandemic as investors prioritized profits over growth.
- That attitude has kept production at pre-crisis levels and helped drive gas prices to record highs.
The very boom that bolstered the US’s energy independence is now making its gas-price problem much, much worse.
For much of the past decade, fracking gave the US energy sector a massive tailwind. In the so-called shale revolution, fields in New Mexico, North Dakota, and Texas became the next boomtowns for energy commodities. In just a few years, the US overtook Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest producer of crude oil and natural gas. Total domestic production of crude oil jumped from 5.4 million barrels a day in early 2010 to a record 13 million at the end of 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration.
But what was recently the industry’s biggest boon has since become a massive snag at the worst possible time. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February quickly pushed energy prices higher around the world as investors braced for a major drop in supply. The West’s sanctions against Russian energy companies lifted prices again in March.
