It is notorious for any agent in the oil and gas industry the growth and relevance achieved by the exploration and production of unconventional resources. In this context, the United States has been the world s foremost highlight with tight oil, which is trapped in the shale rock. For a long time, industry had the idea that production via shale rock would be impracticable, that is, the oil and gas trapped there were irrecoverable. For the development and future exploration and production of this unconventional two factors were the most important. The high value of oil in the international market in the period of 2008-2014, which aroused greater interest in the research and development of these projects and the technological advance, whose main highlights are the stimulation of wells by hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. These technological advances enabled the United States to grow production and return to levels it had in the 1970s before the oil crisis, consolidating itself and very close to being the world s largest producer. This growth coupled with the sharp decline in costs and productivity gains has created major uncertainties for the industry as a whole. OPEC is having its influence on inventory control diminished and large producers have more difficulty predicting future commodity prices and thus planning their investments in longer exploration and development projects such as deep and ultra deep water projects. This thesis aims to explain the technological advances that have occurred in the last years, with their impacts on the investments and operational costs of the projects and with that make an analysis of the economic viability of tight oil exploration and production.