North America to Drown in Oil as Mexico Ends Monopoly

As Richie C says it is partly fracking that is driving up prices but any number of other factors. The shale oil is deep in the ground - about 2 miles down - and is embedded in rock which requires heat to get it out of the rock. They have long known the oil was there but until recently did not have the technology to get it out. Recent developments and higher prices make it cost effective to go for the deeper finds. So they drill down about 2 miles and then somehow turn the drill horizontal to go out in other directions for some distance and then frack and heat and do whatever to get the oil out of the rock - then pump it up. This is very costly and would not be done if the price per barrel didn't justify the cost. Same applies to the deep water drilling offshore which is also a very expensive process. Since the finds in ND the technology has gotten better and is now being used in other areas with booms in TX and OK - but still the process is expensive - and it is time consuming as they must sort of melt the oil out of the rock to retrieve it. All in all very costly and has a lot to do with what the lowest price per barrel can be. Yes, there are probably other factors but they would not be drilling these deep wells if they were not assured of return on investment. There are dreams and there is reality - we are not going to see cheap oil unless there is some new miracle find - which is seriously doubtful as every inch of the earth has already been scoured in search of more oil. Using less could bring down prices and it seems the only way to use less is to buy more economical vehicles - which we RVers are not doing very well. We are in Mexico where the price per gallon at the pump is almost as high as we pay in the US - up from half that price about 5 years ago - so even the Mexican oil prices are going up.