How a "Monster" Texas Oil Field Made the U.S. a Star in the World Market
A fracking operation at a Shell site. Shell has developed algorithms to replicate and standardize the most effective drilling and fracking methods worldwide.
Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
In a global collapse of oil prices five years ago, scores of American oil companies went bankrupt. But one field withstood the onslaught, and even thrived: the Permian Basin, straddling Texas and New Mexico.
A combination of technical innovation, aggressive investing and copious layers of oil-rich shale have transformed the Permian, once considered a worn-out patch, into the world’s second-most-productive oil field.
