Picture is as murky as a barrel of oil, with US companies in 2026 expecting their first production drop in four years
US shale-oil producers were already contending with oil prices at four-year lows. News that they may soon face a significant competitor in their back yard likely wasn’t how frackers wanted to greet 2026.
The US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolaá Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, hit the share prices of independent shale-oil producers, such as Diamondback Energy and Devon Energy, last week.
Over the last 20 years, the US fracking industry has built itself into the main driver of domestic oil production: it accounted for 64% of total US crude oil production in 2023. With average production levels of 13.6m barrels a day (BPD), the US is the world’s largest crude-oil producer.
It’s well established that infinite growth cannot happen on a finite planet. That’s why people continue to talk about Mars settlement. Because outer space is literally infinite.
Yeah, space. That’s always the solution. But if expanding into less and less hospitable environments was the next frontier of continued economic growth, why aren’t investors scrambling to build out Antarctica or the bottom of the ocean?
the thing is that Mars isn’t even that inhospitable. It only appears that way today because people have no knowledge of it behind the surface.
Like, all you really need to build a settlement is water, electricity and a source of carbon. Mars has all three in ample amounts. There is lots of water on mars (see here). It’s just that it’s buried in rock and needs to be extracted through a technical process.
That’s very unlike Antarctica and the bottom of the ocean where you don’t have energy. And that matters.
Also there’s a spiritual/mystical element to it. People would only complain about “environmental protection” if somebody started drilling for oil in antarctica large-scale to grow food, but on mars there is no such concern. In fact, it is widely recognized that spaceflight is an inevitable destiny of (parts of) humanity and that (parts of) humanity needs to turn into a society that routinely relies on high-tech for this, and mars seems like the perfect playground for this. At least that’s how i look at it. Ask away if you have any serious questions :-)
That’s not all you need. You also need breathable air and surface pressure that isn’t going to make your eyes pop out of your skull. You need protection from too high levels of radiation.
You’re not living on the surface of Mars. That environment is not survivable. If you’re going to Mars, you’re living underground or in enclosed habitats. You can do that here. Go get a little bit of land here on Earth and build a self sustaining enclosed habitat and live in it. It would be a lot easier and cheaper.