American oil production, once thought to be in terminal decline, is up strongly for the first time in a quarter-century. Natural gas output, largely flat since the mid-1990s, has grown rapidly for the last five years. These trends look poised to continue, and observers are predicting major geopolitical consequences to follow. Ed Morse, an influential Citigroup analyst and former U.S. official, asserts, “North America is becoming the new Middle East.” Robin West, another perceptive industry observer, predicts that by 2020, the United States will become the world’s largest producer of oil and gas — “the energy equivalent of the Berlin Wall coming down.”