009-美国能源开采技术取得突破

Passage 009-美国能源开采技术取得突破
North Dakota's economy is on fire, thanks to developments in technology that allow oil extraction from shale (页岩) formations deep below the surface.The process to extract that oil, known as hydraulic fracturing (液压破碎法)， or“fracking," is the source of the economic boom for states on top of these deposits (储量) . Now, that prosperity is tricking down (向下滴流) to the rest of the country. “Fracking is the miracle that has brought down gasoline prices.." Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst with the PRICE Futures Group, says the rise in the number of wells (矿井) , and developing and expanding the system to refine (提炼)
and transport shale oil, are a game changer for US energy independence.
“The quality of the oil produces more gasoline than your traditional barrel of oil, and refiners in the US are rising to the occasion to take advantage of this.'
Austan Goolsbee, a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, says while production of oil and natural gas is dramatically higher in the United States, there is a downside. “There is one issue- -the cost of production in North America tends to be higher than in the cheapest places to produce like Saudi Arabia."