March 2014, Vol. 241 No. 3

From the Burner Tip

Impact Of Shale Developed Oil, Gas Covers More Than Production Levels

There is little doubt that natural gas and light oil from shale resources have changed the U.S. energy picture. The abundant supply has led to a 40% increase in natural gas production and a doubling of oil production since the beginning of the century. Equally important and perhaps outshining these tremendous production increases is the explosive growth of the energy midstream infrastructure. The increased oil and gas production is possible because of the midstream facilities. Retrofitting the nation’s natural gas pipeline system and building new gathering, processing, treating, and storage facilities to handle the new sources of hydrocarbons has been a necessity. The larg