WSJ: BP Sees Shale Oil, Gas Shrinking Global Energy Trade

America's climb to become the world's largest energy producer is expected to shrink the market for global oil and natural gas trade, with Europe and Asia set to be the only two major oil and gas importing regions by 2035, BP PLC said in its annual energy forecast Wednesday.

BP's closely watched forecast underscores how the development of shale, or "tight," oil and gas reserves promise to confound long-held assumptions about the global flow of energy over the next 20 years. For decades, the energy industry has structured itself around feeding the U.S., the world's largest importer of crude.  MORE