U.S. Shale Majors Take Fracking Global

By Irina Slav - Feb 11, 2026

• U.S. shale producers are expanding overseas—from Argentina and Turkey to Australia and the UAE—as domestic shale basins mature and well productivity declines.
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• Companies including Continental Resources, EOG Resources, and investors tied to Tamboran Resources are targeting major unconventional plays such as Vaca Muerta, the Beetaloo Basin, and Middle Eastern shale fields.
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• With top-tier U.S. shale inventory shrinking and oil demand forecasts extending toward 2050, producers are exporting American fracking expertise globally to sustain output and future supply growth.U.S. shale oil and gas producers are buying international assets to maintain supply amid revisions of oil demand outlooks for the long term. From South America to the Middle East, frackers are going global.

Continental Resources is one example. The company of fracking icon Harold Hamm has been expanding in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale play, widely considered the second-largest shale oil and gas deposit after the Permian. In the last three months, Continental made two asset acquisition deals in the Vaca Muerta, with its chief executive, Doug Lawler, calling it “one of the most compelling shale plays in the world.”

But Continental is not limiting itself to Argentina. The company also recently sealed two exploration deals in Turkey, one for the Diyarbakir Basin of Southeast Turkey and the Thrace Basin of northwest Turkey. Early evaluations suggest the ultimate recoverable reserves could reach 6 billion barrels of oil and 12-20 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Diyarbakir Basin, and 20-45 trillion cu ft in the Thrace Basin, Continental Resources said.

Meanwhile, the former chief executive of Parsley Energy, Bryan Sheffield, is investing in Australian unconventional energy resources. The Financial Times reported last month that Sheffield—son of Pioneer Natural Resources’ Scott Sheffield—is the biggest shareholder in a company called Tamboran Resources. The company holds the drilling rights to acreage spanning close to 2 million acres in Australia’s Beetaloo basin. The basin is considered to be one of the biggest shale gas deposits globally, with Australia’s Northern Territory government reporting estimated resources of over 500 trillion cu ft in discovered and prospective gas.

EOG Resources, meanwhile, recently started drilling in a shale play in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is not the first country that comes to mind when talking about unconventional energy resources, but it appears to also be as rich in them as it is in conventional oil and gas. The shale major is also planning to drill for oil in a shale play in Bahrain, with chief executive Ezra Yakob saying at an industry event last year, “We have captured abundant resource in both plays, and we’ve partnered with companies that we have very, very strong stakeholder alignment with.”

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article on U.S. shale drillers’ expansion campaign abroad, the move has been prompted by peaking production at home. The article cited a Wood Mackenzie analyst as saying the global expansion was in fact, long overdue, stumped by the prolific resources of the Permian, which kept everyone’s attention focused on oil and gas resources at home.

“One of the things that killed Global Shale 1.0 was the Permian,” Rob Clarke told the WSJ, adding that now the time has come for Global Shale 2.0, as well productivity in the Permian declines from 65 barrels per lateral foot in 2016 to 46 barrels per lateral foot last year. According to data from Enverus from 2024, well productivity in the Permian, the star shale play in the U.S. unconventional oil and gas industry, had declined by 15% since 2020.

The international expansion is also an expansion in fracking technology. U.S. companies doubtlessly have the most accumulated expertise in how to extract oil and gas from shale rock, and they are happy to apply this expertise in other parts of the world. Liberty Energy, for instance, provided modern stimulation equipment for the successful drilling of Tamboran Resources’ gas wells in the Beetaloo basin. EOG is sharing its own shale drilling expertise with Adnoc in the UAE. In Saudi Arabia, SLB is working on the kingdom’s shale gas fields as Riyadh eyes a substantial increase in gas output.

The global expansion of American shale majors is very likely to continue and intensify in the coming years. According to a senior researcher from Enverus, the big shale players have about 7.5 years of high-quality—meaning low-cost—shale reserves, and smaller players only hold around 2.5 years’ worth of top-notch acreage that can return 10% on investment at WTI below $50 per barrel. With forecasts about oil demand changing radically, from peak demand by 2030 to growth until at least 2050, global expansion is the only way to keep the shale oil flowing.

“We’re approaching the point at which we are going to have to find new sources of production. OPEC spare capacity is starting to shrink, U.S. shale is maturing. If demand keeps growing, where are those barrels going to come from?” Dan Pickering from Pickering Energy Partners told the WSJ.

“The Permian has been a massive wealth creator for America, but we’ve drilled the best prospects and are running out of inventory,” Bryan Sheffield told the Financial Times. “Americans will need to explore outside of America in the next three to five years and use their expertise to develop new shale basins,” the industry executive noted.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com