shale

Global energy companies are bracing for extended period of low oil prices.

The most frequent violators promised to use safer measures to avoid infractions, but they don’t.

Shale oil and gas has been labeled a game changer. Statistics would suggest that, yes, the new technologies and discoveries associated with hydraulic fracking change the energy picture and economic outlook, in particular for the United States, but less so than predictions would have it a year or two ago. The greater impact won’t be on the U.S. economy, but rather U.S.-Saudi relations and stability for the Middle East. President Barack Obama met King Abdullah March 28, and both leaders recognize that the geopolitical ground shaped by their common interest in stable oil prices has shifted, creating a new imbalance that could spill over into Mideast security policy.