The growth and development in the extracting of oil from shale rock has been given as the primary reason for this, with the method providing the US with the ability to gain significantly more extractable oil resources. Furthermore, the IEA predicts that further progress in this field could lead to the US becoming all but self-sufficient in its energy needs by around 2035.
At present the US imports approximately 20 percent of its total energy needs, yet the IEA expects it to be producing some 11.1 million barrels of oil per day by 2020, compared to the 10.6 million it predicts will come from Saudi Arabia.
More positive news for the US found in the report states that the IEA also believes that by 2015 it will have overtaken Russia as the world’s biggest gas producer, again due to the success of fracking, which can be used to extract natural gas.
