Despite the economic mayhem of a mishandled Covid-19 pandemic and shale oil’s painfully revealed dependence on Opec+ production deals, US energy indepen- dence remains a key election pitch for President Donald Trump. “We sparked a revolution in domestic energy production, and the US is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas,” Trump declared at a rally last month. “[The US] is no longer energy dependent. We are now energy dominant.” The US emerged as a net exporter of crude and oil products for the frst time in generations in September 2019, EIA data show. Its crude production reached a record 12.87mn b/d in November. And for the whole of 2019, domestic production of all energy types — from coal to solar — outpaced US consumption, albeit slightly. But by May, the US was again a net importer of crude and products. It has not shaken its reliance on crude imports, although the trade gap narrowed to 2.4mn b/d in April as Opec shipments to the country reached their lowest since the EIA began keeping records. But Saudi crude arrivals surged in May-June, demonstrating the continued interconnectedness of global oil markets.
展开▼
