US poised to become world’s leading liquid petroleum producer
US production of oil and related liquids such as ethane and propane was neck-and-neck with Saudi Arabia in June and again in August at about 11.5m barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency, the watchdog backed by rich countries.
With US production continuing to boom, its output is set to exceed Saudi Arabia’s this month or next for the first time since 1991. Riyadh has stressed that the rise of the US should not detract from its own critical role in oil markets. It says it has the ability to increase its output by 2.5m b/d if needed to balance supply and demand.
Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s deputy oil minister, said earlier this month that the kingdom was the “only country with usable spare oil production capacity”.
However, even Saudi officials do not deny that the rise of the US to become the world’s largest petroleum producer – with an even greater lead if its biofuel output of about 1m b/d is included – has played a vital role in stabilising markets.
Global crude prices have fallen in the past two years, in spite of the turmoil in Syria and Iraq, fighting in Libya and Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
Brent crude hit its lowest level in more than two years last week at about $95.60 a barrel, down from a peak of over $125 a barrel early in 2012.
Over that period, the growth in US production of more than 3.5m b/d has almost equalled the entire increase in world oil supplies.
New extraction techniques and high oil prices boost US oil production. The US industry has been transformed by the shale revolution, with advances in the techniques of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling enabling the exploitation of oilfields, particularly in Texas and North Dakota, that were long considered uncommercial.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/98104974-47e4-11e4-be7b-00144feab7de.html#axzz3EnmuLmL2
Well.. so what's this mean for the peak oil picture?
I think I posted about this before but now it's ready to happen, next month or the month after, US will pass the Saudis in liquid petroleum production.
Could this eventually turn the economy around over here, being #1 producer in the world again?
How long will the oil boom last?
Thoughts?