Whilst the whole world watches the fluctuations in the price per barrel with anxiety, the United States’ 8,000 small oil producers have reason to be happy. They account for 80% of the country’s production and, when prices rise, they stand to gain. With more than ten million barrels extracted every day, the US has regained its title as the world’s leading oil producer, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia. Its production has almost tripled over the last ten years. The secret behind this boom: a drilling technique that enables the extraction of shale oil.
Just as in the days of the Wild West, prospectors hoping to strike it rich are flocking to the ‘black gold’. From labourers to engineers and landowners sitting on oil-rich plots, an entire economy is benefiting from this upswing, and the number of millionaires is skyrocketing.
Leading the way is Texas, which accounts for nearly 50% of national production. Towns are springing up like mushrooms around the oil wells, as in Midland, west of Dallas. Thousands of ‘oil men’ – oil workers – are flocking in from all over the country to work in the oil industry, amassing colossal sums; an ordinary labourer earns $15,000 a month. Black gold is pouring into the entire local economy: supermarkets, restaurants and even drive-in cafés, where waitresses in revealing swimsuits can earn over $300 a day.
But drilling leaves behind polluted land and contaminated groundwater, sometimes for several decades. These are the ‘zombie wells’ and there are said to be more than 10,000 of them in Texas. Campaign groups are fighting, often in vain, to ensure that those responsible for these abandoned sites take responsibility for cleaning them up.