QR
QR Energy
Oil & Gas
The Anatomy of the Oil Industry
What Is a Barrel, Really?
Inside the Refinery
Upstream, Midstream, Downstream
Shale
The Shale Revolution, Explained
How Fracking Works
The Permian & the Major Basins
Breakevens & Rig Counts
The Majors
What the Majors Actually Do
IOCs vs. NOCs
The Integrated Model
Capital & the Energy Mix
Energy Markets
Why the Oil Price Moves
Reading the Oil Price
Brent vs. WTI
OPEC & OPEC+, Explained
Futures & Hedging
Spare Capacity & the Swing Producer
Resources & Infrastructure
The Plumbing of Energy
Pipelines & Tankers
Refineries, Storage & Reserves
LNG & Export Terminals
Geopolitics of Oil
Oil & the Balance of Power
Chokepoints: The Straits That Move Oil
Sanctions, Embargoes & Stranded Barrels
Resource Nationalism & Who Owns the Oil
Browse
By the numbers
ILLUSTRATIVE · NOT LIVE
BRENT
82.40
▲0.9%
WTI
78.10
▲0.7%
NAT GAS
2.86
▼1.2%
DIESEL
2.71
▲0.3%
GASOLINE
2.44
▼0.4%
SHALE
Shale
How horizontal drilling and fracking turned marginal rock into a swing producer.
Every explainer in Shale
4 PIECES
01
The Shale Revolution, Explained
How horizontal drilling and fracking turned rock once thought worthless into the world's swing producer.
7 MIN
02
How Fracking Works
Hydraulic fracturing, step by step — what actually happens a mile underground to free the oil and gas.
3 MIN
03
The Permian & the Major Basins
Where the shale is — the basins that matter, and why the Permian became the centre of gravity.
3 MIN
04
Breakevens & Rig Counts
The two numbers that tell you whether shale is drilling or waiting — how breakevens and rig counts work.
4 MIN