By 2017, US can become world's biggest oil producer

The world’s foremost energy watchdog, the  International Energy Agency (IEA) in its recent report “World Energy Outlook 2012” has held that US can become the world’s largest oil producer by 2017.

How would this happen ? Predictions for USA and Global Predictions….

How would this happen ?

• US would benefit from so-called unconventional sources of oil and gas, including shale gas and shale oil, derived from fracking – blasting dense rocks apart to release the fossil fuels trapped within.
• These sources could fuel the US’s energy independence, and make the country the world’s biggest oil producer by 2017.

Predictions for USA

The IEA also forecasts that the United States will

• become world’s biggest oil producer by 2017
• rely more on natural gas than either oil or coal by 2035 due to its cheap domestic supply and uses by industry and electricity generators

Global Predictions

Globally, the IEA indicates that:

• more than 90% of oil and gas from the Middle East could be sold to Asia, and chiefly to rapidly developing countries such as China
• fossil fuels will dominate the world’s energy picture as it has in the past
• But, in the power sector, renewable energy (wind, solar, and hydroelectricity) use worldwide will be second to coal by 2035 due to technology improvements and continued subsidies
• Russia, which remains the largest individual energy exporter throughout the period, sees its revenues from oil, natural gas and coal exports rise from $380 billion in 2011 to $410 billion in 2035
• huge increases in greenhouse gas emissions that would put hopes of curbing dangerous climate change beyond reach.

Thus, predictions in The IEA in its World Energy Outlook 2012:

• fossil fuels will dominate the energy sector through 2035
• United States will become the world’s largest oil producer by 2017, overtaking both Saudi Arabia and Russia
• US will become almost energy independent by 2035
• OPEC will be exporting 90 percent of its oil to Asia, changing the security dynamics in the Middle East.

The IEA is not the only agency with this prediction; Citigroup Inc. indicated that the United States will achieve this goal before the end of this decade.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2012