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The U.S. Just Became a Net Oil Exporter for the First Time in 75 Years:
America turned into a net oil exporter last week, breaking almost 75 years of continued dependence on foreign oil and marking a pivotal -- even if likely brief -- moment toward what U.S. President Donald Trump has branded as "energy independence."
The shift to net exports is the dramatic result of an unprecedented boom in American oil production, with thousands of wells pumping from the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico to the Bakken in North Dakota to the Marcellus in Pennsylvania.
While the country has been heading in that direction for years, this week's dramatic shift came as data showed a sharp drop in imports and a jump in exports to a record high. Given the volatility in weekly data, the U.S. will likely remain a small net importer most of the time.
"We are becoming the dominant energy power in the world," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. "But, because the change is gradual over time, I don't think it's going to cause a huge revolution, but you do have to think that OPEC is going to have to take that into account when they think about cutting."
The shale revolution has transformed oil wildcatters into billionaires and the U.S. into the world's largest petroleum producer, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. The power of OPEC has been diminished, undercutting one of the major geopolitical forces of the last half century.
I can see short-term benefits (avoiding another 1973 Oil Crisis), but am concerned about the long-term strategy. Given a fixed supply of oil, isn't the US just racing to deplete its resources and therefore setting itself up for a later "oil crisis"? The only hope I see is a huge and continued emphasis in transitioning to alternative energy sources (be it solar, wind, and/or nuclear) and thus ween itself from dependence on foreign supplies.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 09 2018, @10:20PM (4 children)
https://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/crudeoilreserves/ [eia.gov]
They keep finding oil and gas. We have more reserves today, after a hundred years of burning the stuff, than we had when we started. Make of that what you will.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday December 09 2018, @10:25PM (1 child)
But doesn't the consumption doubles every 50 years or so? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/world-oil-use-100-million-barrels-rising-global-warming-a8565281.html [independent.co.uk]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday December 10 2018, @02:56PM
Politicians don't need to worry about Climate Change, or the National Debt, or the Environment, or Biological Diversity or other such problems. They will have raked in lobbyist money, and will be out of office raking in even more money for having ever been in office.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Monday December 10 2018, @12:35AM (1 child)
Just like they keep finding new species... we are small, the world is big, but we are screwing it over faster than we are discovering it.
We passed this point [half-earthproject.org] long ago, and we need to go back if we're going to survive long-term.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @01:33PM
This is part of the reason why china is building islands in the sea to claim territory. They have found oil reserves there.
Of course when they build multi million dollar oil rigs to extract the oil from the territory they illegally built on it will be blow up but that is a different problem