The production of shale oil in the southern states of the United States has turned into an environmental disaster, the liquidation of the consequences of which may require hundreds of billions of dollars.

We are talking about the Permian Basin – an oil-bearing region located in the states of Texas and New Mexico. It is considered the center of the US oil industry, and has been developing shale deposits there in recent years.

Extraction of shale oil is more expensive in comparison with classical grades because of technological difficulty of the process, and therefore, the business is profitable only at high world prices. In such a situation, many producing companies go bankrupt, while prices remain low for a long time and abandon wells in oil-bearing areas.