...Since 2005, more than $125bn has been spent on
shale extraction, including drilling and purchasing
land, by the 50 largest US oil and gas companies,
according to a study by Ernst and Young.
High prices over the past decade, the flow of
petroleum from east to west, and the gush of money the other way has allowed Russia to re-assert its international clout and Gulf states to build up massive sovereign wealth funds. The shale boom has the potential to derail those trends.
In 2011, members of the Organisation of Petroleum
Exporting countries (OPEC) earned $1,026bn in net
oil export revenue, a 33 percent increase over 2010, the US Energy Information Adminisiration reported in May. If the price of oil drops because of new supplies, or if natural gas starts to eat into demand for traditional crude, oil-rich nations could potentially find themselves significantly less well-off.
"There will be significant impacts for security and
global politics," Faeth said of the shale boom.
Blue-eyed 'sheikhs'. Thanks largely to fracking, the US is set to overtake
Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's
biggest oil producer by 2017, according to a
November report from the International Energy
Agency (IEA).
Should gas-dependent leaders, including Russia's
Vladimir Putin or the Emir of Qatar, be worried? Will
the wealth and power of steely-eyed ex-KGB agents
or white-robed sheikhs be overshadowed by a rebirth of the American oil man - a new breed of Beverly Hillbilly?
"In the medium term, I think Qatar and Russia are
okay," Frank Asche, professor of risk management at the University of Stavanger in Norway, told Al
Jazeera. "Not [just] because they sell to customers on long-term contracts, but because the infrastructure is
there."
....

Read the whole article here..
m.aljazeera.com/se/20131514160576297

..

I hope our thieving politicians manage to sneak out time from their favourite preoccupation of scheming to pull off the next gagantuan scam to keep tabs on global trends...
Every now and then, we hear of US officials telling those dumbells how the country, in the not so distant future, would become one of the best destinations in the world for bizness and leisure, making them complacent, without droping the slightest hint that their government has been working acidously to become a net exporter of energy (oil n gas) in less than a decade! They never tell them of the grave dangers that lie ahead should we not put our house in order, diversifying the economy.
The report says Quatar and Russia would be relatively unaffected by this cos they have splendid energy infrastructure. What can we boast of in this regard?
Should the predictions be correct, there's no gainsayin the mess we would find ourselves in in 2017 and beyond if no critical pre-emtive steps are taken now. It doesn't take an Einstein to decipher that.
Our 'leaders' NEED TO WAKE THE FVCK UP!!!