According to the Energy Information Administration, global oil exports are on the way down — and appear set to continue to decline:
Obviously, this is counterintuitive. You would expect that as petroleum prices soar, exporters would raise their production to take advantage of the better return. Nevertheless, exports by the top 15 oil suppliers fell by nearly a million barrels per day. That’s because the exporters themselves are experiencing a hug spike in demand:
The U.S.’s top oil suppliers are Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Nigeria. Of those, Mexico, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia all seem likely to reduce their levels of exports in the next few years. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had another supplier — say, a domestic supplier — to pick up the slack? The United States is currently sitting on an expected 10.4 billion barrels of oil in ANWR and another 3.65 billion barrels in the Bakken formation, not to mention some 800 billion barrels more in the shale oil of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Given the high price of oil today and the questions regarding the dependability of our international suppliers, it’s the height of irresponsibility not to begin to plan for production from these and other domestic sources. Senator McCain may be poorly-positioned to make production from ANWR an issue, but Congress is also slammed the brakes on shale oil development. While McCain may oppose drilling in ANWR, he can still stand up for development of shale oil.
