Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

The shale energy revolution unfolding in the US has put it on track to become the world’s biggest oil producer with five years, according to the International Energy Agency.

The shift in the global energy market will see the US overtake Saudi Arabia as the top oil producer by 2017, and overtake Russia as the biggest gas producer by 2015, the energy watchdog said.

The US is benefiting from advances in technology involving hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, which have allowed access to vast energy reserves held in shale rock.

The IEA forecast in its World Energy Outlook that the US will be almost self-sufficient in energy, in net terms, by 2035. “North America is at the forefront of a sweeping transformation in oil and gas production that will affect all regions of the world,” said Maria van der Hoeven, the IEA’s executive director.

Separately BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, laid the ground for improved valuations for its written down shale assets. The company this year had to write down its recently-acquired Fayetteville assets in Arkansas by $2.84bn (£1.8bn), as the flood of shale gas onto the US market depressed gas prices.