NEW YORK, NY June 20 (DPI) – Daniel Yergin, one of America’s foremost observers of the world oil industry and the author of several books on the subject, said this week that the decade-long expansion of domestic drilling of oil in shale deposits has not only boosted world supplies but it’s given the US new leverage in global affairs.

In his comments at a Wall Street Journal CFO Network conference, Yergin said, “Now instead of just OPEC and non-OPEC, you have the big three. You have Saudi Arabia, you have Russia, and you have a country called the United States.”  More of his comments:

“You go to Asia. You go to Europe. You go to the Middle East. They realize the position of the U.S. in the world is different today because of this change in our energy position. Among other things, the sanctions on Iran would not have worked had it not been for shale, because you could not have replaced the Iranian oil that was taken off the market. And so now instead of just OPEC and non-OPEC, you have the big three. You have Saudi Arabia, you have Russia, and you have a country called the United States.”

Readers largely agreed with that assessment. Among the most noted comments on WSJ.com:

The shale revolution is still in its early stages.  Argentina and China are just starting, and there are other shale formations around the world.  Sadly, some of them are owned by the usual suspects:  Middle Eastern nations and Russia.  Luckily, they have little of the laissez-faire government attitude, entrepreneurial ethos or free market capital sources that made North American producers so successful.  In North America, the Duvernay, a huge formation in Alberta, has not yet been substantially tapped.  There are many other formations that become commercially viable at various upward steps in the oil price, so there are effective options putting a ceiling on future price escalation, or rapid increases in production.

Yergin, 70, is the author of the 1990 book “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power”, regarded by many of one of the most authoritative – and readable – narratives on the global oil industry.  A political moderate, Yergin raised some eyebrows when he agreed in December to advise the Trump administration on energy policy matters.