A worker adjusts hoses during a hydraulic fracturing operation at a gas well. "“nearly every fifth barrel of oil and every fourth cubic meter of gas in the world will come from the U.S.," the late Harvard oil expert Leonardo Maugeri declared. As oil hit US$120 a barrel in 2012, the late Harvard oil expert Leonardo Maugeri produced a seminal paper titled “Oil: The Next Revolution: The Unprecedented Upsurge of Oil Production Capacity and What it Means for the World.” During a time filled with ominous predictions of a coming oil supply crisis, Maugeri ripped apart the conventional wisdom and outlined the foundation for a new oil revolution that would reshape global energy markets. Most of Maugeri’s analysis and conclusions, arresting at the time, stand up today, as the price of oil has followed the logical path of a commodity that is in abundant supply at near historically low prices. As the revolution spreads, he said, it will elevate China as a new energy protagonist and make the Western Hemisphere oil self-sufficient and “the new center of gravity of oil exploration and production.” Other dramatic effects will hit corporations and governments, especially policymakers fixated on climate. While many repercussions […]
