Predictions of US energy self-sufficiency in oil may be making a tragic assumption — that producers won’t use shale extraction technology to invest in other countries that may be cheaper or face less regulation than the United States.
For instance, a company yesterday released reports saying a basin in Australia could contain 3.5 billion to 233 billion barrels of oil.
A boom in shale investment could also spark an eventual glut in production that drives prices down and (ironically) makes many of the projects unfeasible.
