Fracking Boosts U.S. Oil to 10 Percent of Global Supply

The U.S. now contributes more than 10 percent of the total global crude oil supply as of the end of 2013, a result of the advances in hydraulic fracturing and drilling technology that are driving the oil and gas boom in Texas, North Dakota and other Western states, new U.S. Energy Information Administration data show.

The drilling frenzy in the West's oil fields is mainly about one thing: "tight" crude. 

Most of the easiest oil to drill in the U.S. has been in decline, so energy companies over the last decade have looked to layers of rock that oil cannot easily flow through called "tight" rock formations to unlock oil and natural gas that was previously too costly to reach. Getting that tight crude requires hydraulical fracturing, or fracking, using high volumes of water, sand and chemicals injected at high pressure to crack open, or frack, the rock, allowing the oil to flow into a well.

Fracking Boosts U.S. Oil to 10 Percent of Global Supply