Fracking oil prices in USarticles - Literature review Example

Running Head: FRACKING & OIL PRICES IN THE U.S. Fracking & Oil Prices in the U.S. Literature Review By nameUniversity nameCity, StateDate Fracking & Oil Prices in the U.S. Literature Review The oil and gas sector is immensely raising production across the United States and recovering from a two-decade drop. According to the New York Times writers Clifford Krauss and Eric Lipton, innovations inspired by increasing oil prices since 2005 have enabled this industry to mine millions of barrels weekly from the deepest seas off the Gulf of Mexico and the steppes of North Dakota (Krauss and Lipton, 2012, p. 2). Krauss and Lipton gather their information from an energy and ecological representative at Council on Foreign Relations.

Interviews with a senior representative at the Energy Department, the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, a task force member, the GM of the Midland BMW franchise, and the owner of Rusty’s Oilfield Service Company reveal more information about this change in America’s energy sector (Krauss and Lipton, 2012, p. 4). Dow and Jones writer Daniel Yergin sheds light on the same issue by asserting that today’s “unconventional-natural-gas revolution” converted a shortfall into a huge surplus and changed the natural gas enterprise (Yergin, 2011, p. 2). Yergin’s article cites an independent shale gas producer from Houston David Wessel as proof of this revolutionary change.

Since Wessel began extracting in the early 1980s, he has witnessed an immense change in production and market growth over the past decade in contrast to the 1980s and 1990s (Yergin, 2011, p. 5). Jeffrey Folks, from American thinker, agrees with Krauss, Lipton, and Yergin about the decreasing oil costs across the world caused by fracking in the United States. Like Krauss and Lipton, Folks cites statistics from Bloomberg, CBC, the Wall Street Journal, Trading Economics, Forbes, and EIA (Folks, 2014).

These figures point the rise in the production of barrels daily to fracking in the United States. Folks compares this effect to the hypothetical absence of fracking in the United States and Canada. This comparison leads the article to contend further that this fracking revolution may carry on for decades as the United States’ economy revels in growth (Folks, 2014). H. Sterling Burnett of the National Center for Policy Analysis echoes Folks’ insights about the effect of fracking today in contrast to traditional oil production over the past ten years (Burnett, 2013).

With the help of graphs representing recoverable natural gas and daily oil output, the article proves how even electricity providers are shifting to natural gas as a key source of power. This role could not have been possible today without an immense array of natural gas reserves in the United States. Burnett sees this availability as a reason for the federal government to chip in in its exploitation rather than competition for its external oil producers such as Saudi Arabia (Burnett, 2013). Oil-Price writer Steve Austin says the latest decreases in oil prices are changing the underlying forces of oil production (Austin, 2014).

Austin rationalizes this change to basic economics and asserts that increases in varying supply causes consumers to shop for lower prices. The article explores more economics basics factors such as costs, extracting conditions, foreign policy, permanent impacts, and possible solutions to support its argument. This exploration reveals to Austin the “intertwined” nature of the United States’ oil sector, and local and foreign politics (Austin, 2014). With Saudi Arabia being a major player in this interrelationship, the American oil industry is bound to trample its energy independence.

ReferencesAustin, S 2014, ‘Falling Oil Price slows US Fracking,’ Oil-Price.Net, 8 December, viewed 3 Mar 2015, http://oil-price.net/en/articles/falling-oil-price-slows-us-fracking.phpBurnett, HS 2013, ‘How Fracking Helps Meet America’s Energy Needs,’ National Center for Policy Analysis, 24 October, viewed 3 Mar 2015, http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ib132Folks, J 2014, ‘Fracking Drives Global Oil Prices Down,’ American Thinker, 13 December, viewed 3 Mar 2015, http://www.americanthinker.

com/articles/2014/12/fracking_drives_global_oil_prices_do wn.htmlKrauss, C and Lipton, E 2012, ‘U.S. Inches Toward Goal of Energy Independence,’ The New York Times, 22 Mar, viewed 3 Mar 2015, NYTimes database.Yergin, D 2011, ‘Stepping on the Gas,’ The Wall Street Journal, 2 Apr, viewed 3 Mar 2015, WSJ.com database.