Data Point - Net Oil Imports 1985 - 2014 - Granite Grok

Data Point – Net Oil Imports 1985 – 2014

From AEIdeas:

Net Oil ImportsI got my license right after OPEC declared war on the US with an oil embargo so I remember the outcry that the US had to become “Energy Independent”!  And for the last 50 years I have listened to politician after politician say “I WILL DO THAT!” during every election cycle – and all we ended up with was higher net oil imports from unfriendly countries and a Department of Energy that has failed its basic mission.  Instead, it has been the PRIVATE SECTOR that has created that downslope (via fracking on private lands).

“According to data recently released by the Energy Information Administration, America’s net petroleum imports fell to 28.4% during the first three months of 2014 (see chart above, data here). That’s the lowest dependence on foreign sources of petroleum since 1985, when net petroleum imports averaged 27.3% for the year. The two decade increase in net petroleum imports from 27.3% in 1985 to a peak of 60.3% in 2005, has been almost completely reversed in less than nine years. For that reversal in dependence on foreign sources of petroleum, we can thank a small group of dedicated American “petropreneurs,” who successfully “cracked the shale code” with advanced drilling technologies that accessed oceans of shale oil in places like North Dakota and Texas. The fall in net petroleum imports this year to a 29-year low is another milestone in the Great American Energy Boom, which has quickly taken us from an era of “energy scarcity” to a new era of “energy abundance.” Carpe oleum.”

>