by Peter Zeihan on October 19, 2023

So, how did the US use all that crude oil and natural gas produced during the first shale revolution? As the need for industrial expansion grew, so did the American refining industry’s footprint.

That’s the essence of the second shale revolution – America could now turn that crude oil and natural gas into a suite of products, ranging from refined oil to intermediate chemical products.

This industrial buildout helped prop up the green transition by offering a flexible backup fuel source for solar and wind power. Ethane, a byproduct of all that natural gas production, gave way to the US becoming a major producer of fertilizers and plastics.

As the US continues to extract this light sweet crude, more processing capacity will be needed to handle the surplus. This will likely cement the US as the world’s largest exporter of energy and energy-derived products in the coming decade.

As you may have guessed, that’s not the end of shale’s story in the US…so I’ll see you tomorrow for part three.

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