The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[OakesCS]

I've been puzzled about shale gas outside of North America for two years now. Can't understand why it has taken so long for this obvious technology transfer to start....Or North America has a more entrepreneurial oil and gas industry?

I think your guess is correct. Shale gas reservoirs in North America are/were being drilled by small operators which don't exist in the rest of the world. Those small operators comprise something like 30% of the shale gas service provider market (not sure if that's still true). Those small operators have/had a problem in that most of them carried a substantial debt load. Plummeting gas prices and tightened credit may have driven many of those operators into bankruptcy.