Increasing Oil Production In The United States Of America
Increasing Oil Production in the United States of America
Crude oil is a major source of energy for the world. Everyday the United States consumes more crude oil than it produces. The growing number of barrels of oil imported into the Unites States and rising gas prices are major concerns. Even though increasing the United States crude oil production may not lower gas prices immediately, it will eventually allow the United States to be energy independent.
Oil is used in many different ways besides gasoline. Many types of products worldwide consume oil. Plastics, rubber, tar, lubricates, asphalt, perfume and wax are just a few of the byproducts that come from oil. A barrel of crude oil, which is 42 U.S. gallons, will produce around 19.6 gallons of gasoline (Energy Information Administration, 2008). The Energy Information Administration (2008) stated that the United States alone consumed 7.5 billion barrels of oil in 2007. To illustrate, 24% of the world’s oil production is consumed by the United States.
In 2007 the total world production of crude oil was 73.27 billion barrels per day (Energy Information Administration, 2008). OPEC (2008) stated that Russia is the leading producer of oil with 9.5 million barrels per day. The United States only produces 5.1 million barrels per day (Energy Information Administration, 2008). To increase oil production the United States would have to expand the area of which drilling is allowed. The majority of the United States oil comes from Alaska, Texas, and the Gulf of Mexico (Energy Information Administration, 2008). The United States imports the majority of the oil from foreign countries. Oil is found in many different countries and geographical locations. The five main countries the United States imports oil from are, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Nigeria. The United States imported 9.994 million barrels of crude oil in the month of June 2008 (Energy Information Administration,...
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