Global Gas Push Stalls

Shale oil and natural gas have rejuvenated the North American energy industry and boosted the economy by supplying companies and consumers with cheap fuel. There are huge shale deposits outside of North America that global energy companies and governments are eager to tap.

But oil companies are running into obstacles as they try to replicate the US experience on other continents, including government ownership of mineral rights, environmental concerns, and a lack of infrastructure to drill and transport gas and oil.

For instance, France and Bulgaria, have banned hydraulic fracking because of environmental issues, essentially stopping development in its tracks. As another complication, much less is known about the geology in most foreign countries than in the US, where drilling activity has been going on for more than a century.

The result of such problems: the US and Canada could remain the main countries to reap the economic advantages of shale development for some time. Read more in the WSJ.