Fracking Made up 50% of US Oil Production in 2015

Hydraulic fracturing accounts for about half of the crude-oil production in the U.S., the Energy Information Administration said in a report Tuesday.

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, involves using a mix of water, sand, and other additives to coax oil and gas from dense rock formations, and has unlocked huge oil and gas deposits previously trapped in shale rock.

The technique has been around for more than 60 years, but only recently has been used to produce a significant portion of oil in the country, the EIA said.

By 2015, the number of hydraulically-fractured wells grew to an estimated 300,000, and production from those wells grew to more than 4.3 million barrels a day, the government agency reported, using well completion and production data from DrillingInfo and IHS Global Insight. That output makes up about 50% of the country’s total oil output.

Shale production had helped the U.S. surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s largest producer of oil in 2014, according to Platts. But the output growth contributed to a glut of oil supplies– and a slump in prices that saw the U.S. benchmark fall more than 70% from its mid-2014 peak.

via MarketWatch

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.