How to Use shale oil in a Sentence

shale oil

noun
  • The shale oil boom is responsible for much of the rise in oil prices.
    — Sarah McFarlane, WSJ, 8 Mar. 2018
  • In essence, the American shale oil boom of the last few years is over.
    — Nawaf Obaid For Cnn Business Perspectives, CNN, 23 Apr. 2020
  • And there was no cheaper place to pump shale oil than in the Permian.
    — David Wethe / Bloomberg, Time, 10 July 2018
  • The shale oil boom, triggered by new technologies, had arrived.
    — Jacob Orledge, ProPublica, 4 Aug. 2025
  • The shale oil boom ensued, and a number of heavy oil projects were implemented.
    — Robert Rapier, Forbes, 17 Sep. 2021
  • But in 2016, fracking opened up the taps on cheap US shale oil.
    — Michael J. Coren, Quartz, 19 June 2020
  • Unlike crude oil, which pools in subterranean reservoirs, shale oil is found within shale rocks.
    — Stefanie Waldek, Space.com, 12 Jan. 2026
  • The focus was on horizontal wells that are used for shale oil or shale gas production.
    — Ian Palmer, Forbes, 27 June 2022
  • The rise in shale oil productive capacity should keep a lid on gasoline prices.
    — Phillip Molnar, sandiegouniontribune.com, 4 May 2018
  • The town and its surrounding areas sit on vast underground stores of natural gas and shale oil.
    — J.j. Anselmi, The New Republic, 21 Dec. 2020
  • In general, extracting shale oil is profitable at prices of about fifty dollars a barrel.
    — Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2020
  • In counties that benefited most from the shale oil-fracking boom, local demand for labor shot up.
    — Greg Ip, WSJ, 10 July 2019
  • Since 2007, the amount of drilling for shale oil and gas in the United States has exploded.
    — Steven Mufson, Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2020
  • Biden has not called for an end to fracking, the process used in much of the United States to extract shale oil and natural gas.
    — Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2020
  • Neuquén is home to the Vaca Muerta shale play, which contains the second largest shale gas and the fourth largest shale oil reserves in the world.
    — Baker Institute, Forbes, 13 Sep. 2021
  • Russia, seeking to blunt the rise of US shale oil producers, refused last month to cut oil production.
    — Matt Egan, CNN, 13 Aug. 2021
  • But those efforts may not pan out if the price of oil dips below the sweet spot for shale oil profit in the neighborhood of $55 to $60 per barrel.
    — Dino Grandoni, Washington Post, 2 Jan. 2018
  • In the past, shale oil reserves were difficult to pinpoint because scientists lacked a complete understanding of how these rocks formed.
    — Stefanie Waldek, Space.com, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Crude oil prices are likely to remain at modest levels, too, thanks to those energetic shale oil drillers in the Lower 48.
    — Tim Bradner, Anchorage Daily News, 13 Dec. 2017
  • Despite oil prices topping $100 a barrel, most shale oil and gas producers are unwilling to ramp up production in a big way.
    — Dallas News, 1 Apr. 2022
  • The decades-old refineries along the Gulf Coast can't rely solely on US shale oil, which tends to be lighter than oil overseas.
    — Matt Egan, CNN, 3 Dec. 2021
  • The process of impregnation consists merely in mixing the powdered peat with 10 percent by weight of shale oil and then briquetting.
    — Mark Fischetti, Scientific American, 12 Dec. 2022
  • The ferocity of the US shale oil revolution has caught analysts off guard several times over the past decade.
    — Matt Egan, CNN, 10 June 2019
  • The boom of American shale oil horizontal wells was over for the time being, and as rigs were stacked and drilling reduced, worldwide oil production began to drop.
    — Richard Mason, Arkansas Online, 20 Sep. 2020
  • Since the shale oil boom in places like Williston and Watford City, the population increase has not matched their official census counts.
    — USA TODAY, 5 Mar. 2020
  • The opposite has happened in the US, which by one rough measure is close to being fully self-sufficient in oil thanks to the shale oil revolution.
    — Mary Hui, Quartz, 23 Mar. 2022
  • By 2022, shale oil and tight gas will account for half of the country’s total production, YPF said in a statement.
    — Taos Turner, WSJ, 25 Oct. 2017
  • As shale oil production boomed in the Permian Basin, so did flaring and venting; in recent years, more Texan gas has gone up into the heavens than been used in the state’s homes.
    — Liam Denning, Chron, 18 Jan. 2021
  • That trend can be largely attributed to the industry’s increasing reliance on fracking for shale oil and gas, which demands ongoing spending to remain operational.
    — Tim McDonnell, semafor.com, 16 Sep. 2025
  • In 2012, after the shale oil boom, North Dakota moved into the number-two spot after Texas, supplanting Alaska.
    — Mike Hughlett, Star Tribune, 14 June 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shale oil.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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