Financial Tools for Stimulation of Non-Conventional Development

This piece of work is focused on studying the best U.S. practices in developing unconventional oil resources, particularly the efficiency of the financial instruments designed to encourage this process. Due to the intensification of the light tight oil extraction the United States has been undergoing the way from being a net oil consumer to the energetically self-sufficient country. At the moment the United States has surpassed the Russian Federation in production of natural gas and is keeping up with Saudi Arabia in the volumes of the extracted oil. However an increased competition in the oil market has raised the question of the industry’s economic sustainability under the condition of low oil prices. Is the existing financial architecture of this infant industry capable of not only protecting it from the oil market shocks, but of encouraging the technological progress as well? Is it possible to decrease the production costs thus making the shale oil truly competitive with the conventional oil? The existence of significant tight oil reserves in Russia makes studying the American successful experience in this sphere a very relevant task.