For decades, fracking was a high-tech phenomenon (or an environmental nightmare, depending on whom you asked) almost exclusively of the US energy industry. In West Texas and other energy-rich North American regions, the unconventional methods combining hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have been used since the early aughts to unlock vast energy resources once considered unreachable in tight-rock formations, vaulting US shale into a $1.4 trillion sector, according to research firm Enverus. Most other nations largely stayed clear of the novel techniques, opting instead for more established drilling methods.