Data Points: Oil Production in United States
Severin Boreinstein of the University of California Energy Institute sent these figures today in response to proposals to increase offshore oil production in the United States.
- The world uses on the order of 86 million barrels a day of petroleum. That figure is expected to veer sharply upward as China and India go in for automobiles and trucking in a big way.
- The United States uses nearly 21 million barrels a day of petroleum and liquified hydrocarbon fuel, or nearly 25% of everything the world produces daily. The US has 5% of the world’s population.
- The US produces about 5 million barrels a day of petroleum and another 3 million barrels a day of liquefied fuel. That 8 million barrels a day is only about a third of what we use, so we import the rest. The lower 48 states produced about 4.4 million barrels of petroleum a day in 2006.
- If all the known offshore fields were drilled and panned out, the lower 48’s oil production would be increased by 7%. That would be 300,000 barrels a day.
- 0.3 million barrels a day would make very little difference whatsoever to current oil prices even if it could be brought online right now. It would be a matter of a few pennies. And, in fact, if there were to be any impact of all of offshore drilling on prices, it would not come until 2020 or even 2030.
- The Saudis just offered to increase their production by 0.5 million barrels a day, and the oil futures market just yawned.
- US consumption of petroleum is increasing over time, so the extra 300,000 barrels a day would quickly be used up and then some.
- If the US depended more on trains and increased automobile and truckfuel efficiency, it could reduce its use of petroleum by millions of barrels a day.
- It is estimated that Federal subsidies for highways annually amount to $500 an automobile, while subsidies for Amtrak amount to only $40 a passenger.
– Keith Schneider
Tags: Amtrak, barrels of oil, cost of rail, gas prices, offshore drilling, oil prices