U.S. to Unleash ‘Major Second Wave’ of Fracked Oil

Despite governments around the world enacting measures to reduce carbon emissions to help fight climate change, the latest oil market forecast from the International Energy Agency (IEA) makes it clear that the world is yet to turn its back on fossil fuels.

According to IEA’s Oil 2018, global oil production capacity is forecast to hit 107 million barrels a day (mb/d) by 2023. As TIME noted from the report, much of that growth is led by the U.S. due to oil produced from fracking the Permian Basin in western Texas, where output is expected to double by 2023.

“Non-OPEC supply growth is very, very strong, which will change a lot of parameters of the oil market in the next years to come,” Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, told reporters at the CERAWeek energy conference hosted by IHS Markit. “We are going to see a major second wave of U.S. shale production coming.”

The IEA predicts that growth in U.S. oil production will meet 80 percent of the growing global demand over the next three years, with Canada, Brazil and Norway able to supply the rest.

“Thanks to the shale revolution, the United States leads the picture, with total liquids production reaching nearly 17 mb/d in 2023, up from 13.2 mb/d in 2017,” the analysis states.

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska said at the CERAWeek energy conference “there has never been a more exciting time for the American energy sector.”

“It is clear to me the American energy renaissance is now in full swing and is being supported by federal government policies,” he added.

But environmental activist Josh Fox, the director of Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary Gasland, lamented the resurgent shale boom.

“A major second wave of fracking is coming,” he tweeted. “Ok fractivists, time for a major second wave of organizing, because we don’t have a major second planet to live on.”

"A major second wave of fracking is coming". Ok fractivists, time for a major second wave of organizing, because we don't have a major second planet to live on. https://t.co/V3puvv1oKa

— Josh Fox #BanFrackingNow (@joshfoxfilm) March 7, 2018