most notably the booming shale oil and shale gas production has substantially increased the scope of fossil fuel resources shale gas and oil production require hydraulic fracturing fracking which consumes a lot of water and large quantities of water are needed for releasing and processing bitumen at the global level there is way less water used for fossil fuel extraction than for power generation iea but this part of the nexus can be crucial for many reasons therefore the water intensity will be pushed up and in the absence of water regulation it might significantly increase water w ithdrawals and consumption from the fossil fuel sector although iea argues that water consumption may not have to increase