[Willie Green]

Willie, how about your expert opinion re this oil and its impact on the Opecker Princes.

It may cut into OPEC's revenues somewhat, but America still loses and will slide into further dependence on imported oil. All that happens is we become dependent on BOTH OPEC and Russia.

U.S. Petroleum & Crude Oil Overview
(thousand barrels per day)

	1960	1965	1970	1975	1980	1985	1990	1995	2000
U.S. Crude Oil Production	7,035	7,804	9,637	8,375	8,597	8,971	7,355	6,560	5,834
U.S. Petroleum Imports	1,815	2,468	3,419	6,056	6,909	5,067	8,018	8,835	11,093
Total	8,850	10,272	13,056	14,431	15,506	14,038	15,373	15,395	16,927
Imports as % of Total	20.5	24.0	26.2	42.0	44.6	36.1	52.2	57.4	65.5

[aShepard]

It may cut into OPEC's revenues somewhat, but America still loses and will slide into further dependence on imported oil. All that happens is we become dependent on BOTH OPEC and Russia

I don't see that as a long term negative to preserve our domestic oil. With proven reserves of liquid oil of about 40 years, Oil in the ground in year 2050 will be worth a hell of alot more than it is today.

Maybe nuc power and wind and solar power will reduce dependency on fossil fuel, but its still going to be tough to fly a plane with a long extension cord.

[El Gato]

OF course much of those imports are not from the middle east, but rather Mexico, Venezuala, Canada, and other regional producers. It's Europe, aside from the UK and to a lessor extent others able to tap into the North Sea fields, Japan and China that are really dependent on middle eastern oil. It's part of why the Eurowienies are so willing to kiss Islamafacist behinds.

[BohDaThone]

This is somewhat misleading.

1) We produce about 2.5 million bbls/day of "natural gas Liquids," which refine like oil

2) The "petroleum imports" does not adjust for about 1 million bbls/day of "exports" -- mostly refined products, or oil being transshipped.

3) In particular years, it may not adjust for whether stocks are being built up or drawn down.

When you do the reasonable adjustments above, our current dependence is about 51%, with a high of 46% or so back in the 70's, and a low of 28-30% around 1985.


Also, note that what really counts is PRODUCTION, not exactly where it comes from. No embargo will work directly -- you can always but from somewhere else, at a higher price. It is the drop in production that hurts.

Thus -- More russian oil is good news, whether or not they sell it directly to us. As is Peruvian oil, New Guinean Oil, etc. All of which are coming -- everywhere but Alaska!! LOL