U.S. companies will export more energy than they import by 2025 as shale oil and gas production keeps climbing and the transportation sector becomes more efficient, Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said in a note today. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in hydrocarbon-rich layers of shale rock have boosted U.S. oil and gas production by 42 percent in the past seven years. The U.S. vehicle fleet will become 40 percent more energy-efficient by 2030, said James Brick, a senior analyst at the Edinburgh-based research firm. “A country can achieve energy independence through two channels,” Brick said in the note. “It can either produce more or consume less, and the U.S. is doing both.” Crude production in the U.S. has risen to 8.9 million barrels a day, the highest level since 1985, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. Natural gas output is 2.3 trillion cubic feet a day, the highest […]