I have been seeing a lot of news articles about “no longer being held hostage by the Middle East’s oil.” It is often discussed as being “energy independent.” This is usually tangential to the somewhat controversial processes of hydraulic fracturing. When you start talking about Saudi Arabia as an energy superpower, consider the following: We only import 18% of the oil we use. The rest is domestic. Of that, only 38% of that comes from OPEC countries. Of that, only 36% come from Saudi Arabia. That means only about 2.5% of our total oil used comes from Saudi, which is about 13.5% of all oil imported. Also, our number one supplier of imported oil is Canada. We import twice as much oil from our neighbors to the North than from Saudi. Some other interesting statistics about who is really has the market cornered on energy: Total Oil Production [pulled out of the ground] (Barrels Per Day) Saudi Arabia: 9.9million U.S.A.: 8.5million [#1-Russia: 10.9million) Total Natural Gas Production [pulled out of the ground] (Cubic Meters Per Day) Saudi Arabia: 103trillion U.S.A.: 381trillion [#1 baby!] Total Oil Refining Capacity (Barrels Per Calendar Day) Saudi Arabia: 3.7million U.S.A: 17.3million If you take the average energy density of crude oil and natural gas and consider the above production rates [you’ll have to trust my math here] you get the below total energy production from fossil fuel extraction (not including coal): Saudi Arabia: 790 MW U.S.A: 927 MW [U-S-A!! U-S-A!!] Now let’s look at coal production (Million Metric Tonnes Per Year): Saudi Arabia: 0 U.S.A.: 922.1 So take your 927 MW (that’s million joules of energy per SECOND!) and add another 936,000 MW! Total U.S. energy production from all fossil fuels is 937 GW!!! With Saudi making less than 0.1% of that. Now, with the blessing of hydraulic fracturing, we are poised to surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia in 2017 at an estimated 11 MMBPD. However, we currently consume 19 MMBPD and that is still increasing. Conversely, we need to remember that the U.S. is the number one exporter of petrochemical products like ethylene (C2H4, used to make plastics) which is currently exported at 4 million tonnes per year (33 MW, again trusting my math.) All this means that, even ignoring coal, we are already producing more energy from oil and gas extraction than Saudi and trailing barely behind Russia. On our way to being #1 in the world in that. We produce more coal than Russia. China produces 4 times more coal than the U.S., but we have twice the amount in reserve than they do. The US will be a net exporter of energy in the next decade. With or without fracking, we are and will be for a long time, #1 in energy. Only reason anyone even pays attention to those guys in the desert is that they sell theirs. We use ours. The take home from this is not whether fracking is good or bad. It is to show that the political discussions surrounding the practice are all bullshit. We need more energy to sustain our way of life. Where that comes from should be scientific, not political.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 07:15:57 +0000