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ENERGY 2020: North America, the New Middle East?

ENERGY 2020: North America, the New Middle East?

Full Title:   ENERGY 2020: North America, the New Middle East?
Author(s): Edward L Morse, Eric G Lee, Daniel P Ahn Aakash Doshi, Seth M Kleinman, Anthony Yuen
Publisher(s): USDOE, Argonne National Laboratory
Publication Date: March 1, 2012
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

For the first time since 1949, the US has become a net petroleum product exporting country and has edged out Russia as the world’s largest refined petroleum exporter. A simple explanation would point to lower demand and a struggling economy which requires less imported energy. But, that would only get you half the answer. US demand has fallen by some 2-m b/d since its peak in 2005 in part due to the recession but also due to a structural change due to demographic changes, policies on fuel efficiencies and the mass-commercialization of technologies. The more exciting part of the answer is on the supply side as the US has become the fastest growing oil and natural gas producing area of the world and is now the most important marginal source for oil and gas globally. Add to this steadily growing Canadian production and a comeback in Mexican production and you get to a higher growth rate than all of OPEC can sustain.

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