How Fracking Helped the U.S. Become the World’s Top LNG Exporter

In 2003, the late author and investment banker Matther Simmons predicted that with “certainty,” by 2005 the U.S. would enter a long-term natural gas crisis for which the only solution was “to pray.” T. Boone Pickens and a number of high-profile energy insiders concurred. ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil made large acquisitions of natural gas companies, betting on a future with much higher natural gas prices. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals were being built to help address the expected supply shortfall. By 2005,…