The fracking of hard-to-reach oil reserves has helped the US regain its crown as the world’s top crude oil producer. But even the International Energy Agency (IEA) is now worried that the shale boom has been overhyped. Oil drilling rigs in Texas (picture-alliance/AP Images/Odessa American/C. Sacco) Since it first came on stream a decade ago, US shale oil has been hailed as the great black hope for a world still reliant on fossil fuels, despite the worsening effects of climate change. Concerns about the depletion of Middle East oil reserves have been somewhat offset by the resurgence of US oil production, which last month reached 11.6 million barrels per day (bpd), up 20 percent on the previous year. That’s already more than a third of the 32 million barrels produced globally per day. The US, whose oil industry peaked in 1970s and was thought to be in terminal decline, […]