America’s shale industry faces constraints

THE HISTORY of America’s shale industry is brief and dramatic. In just a decade the country has seen the spread of innovative techniques to extract oil and gas locked inside shale rock; the lifting of a decades-long ban on crude exports; a price crash that seemed to decimate the industry—and now a price recovery. Next year the shale boom will account for the biggest surge in one country’s oil output since the International Energy Agency began keeping track. America is now the world’s top oil producer, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia.America’s strides are all the more striking because they coincide with wobbles elsewhere. Output from many giant petro-states looks shaky at best. Exports from Iran are plummeting and due to sink further when American sanctions take effect next month. Venezuela’s production is in freefall. Supplies are vulnerable in Libya and Iraq. Even before the fallout over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist last seen entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul raised questions about the kingdom (see ), many analysts doubted its ability to boost production quickly. Saudi oil exports are already near their peak of the past five years.