Daniel Yergin, Chairman, Cambridge Energy Research Associates

 A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Daniel Yergin provides an historical and comprehensive view into fracking, horizontal drilling and so-called unconventional gas from diverse shale formations. What has become known as the “unconventional-natural-gas revolution” has turned a shortage into a large surplus.  This revolution has arrived, moreover, at a moment when rising oil prices, sparked by turmoil in the Middle East, and the nuclear crisis in Japan have raised anxieties about energy security.

As late as 2000, shale gas was just 1% of American natural-gas supplies. Today, it is about 25% and could rise to 50% within two decades. Estimates of the entire natural-gas resource base, taking shale gas into account, are now as high as 2,500 trillion cubic feet, with a further 500 trillion cubic feet in Canada. That amounts to a more than 100-year supply of natural gas, which is used for everything from home heating and cooking to electric generation, industrial processes and petrochemical  feedstocks.

Mitchell Energy’s  light sand fracking,  which breaks up hard shale rock, was combined with the horizontal drilling techniques of Devon Energy, starting in 2002. “At that time,” said Larry Nichols, the chairman of Devon, “absolutely no one believed that shale drilling worked, other than George Mitchell and us.”

In 2003,  Devon Energy drilled 55 wells in the Barnett Shale of Texas, optimizing the combination of fracking and horizontal drilling. The know-how was applied across North America, in such shale formations as Haynesville, mostly in Louisiana; Eagle Ford in South Texas; Woodford in Oklahoma; Horn River and Montney in British Columbia; Duvernay in Alberta; and the “mighty Marcellus,” the huge formation that spreads from Pennsylvania and New York down into West Virginia.

In his energy speech this past week, President Barack Obama said, “Recent innovations have given us the opportunity to tap large reserves—perhaps a century’s worth—in the shale under our feet. The potential here is enormous.” And, in an era of heightened environmental awareness, any incident, even involving a single water well, can become a national event.  As a recent analysis from the MIT Energy Initiative put it, “With over 20,000 shale wells drilled in the last 10 years, the environmental record of shale-gas development is for the most part a good one.  Nevertheless, one must recognize…the damage that can be caused by just one poor operation.”

What many analysts expect to see is the emergence of a set of “best practices,” endorsed by both regulators and industry and tailored to the specific characteristics of the diverse basins across the country.  For shale gas production to succeed on a massive scale, public confidence will be essential.

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—Mr. Daniel Yergin is chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an energy research and consulting firm. His new book “The Quest” will be published in September. He received the Pulitzer Prize for his book “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power.”