A Retrospective Review of Shale Gas Development in the United States: What Led to the Boom?

This paper reviews the economic, policy, and technology history of shale gas development in the United States. We aim primarily to answer the question of what led to the shale gas boom in the United States to help inform stakeholders in those countries that are attempting to develop their own shale gas resources. Our review finds that government policy, private entrepreneurship, private land and mineral rights ownership, high natural gas prices in the 2000s, and a number of other factors all played important roles in generating the technology innovations underlying the shale gas boom.