Just a few years ago, oil prices would fluctuate without even signs of any conflict anywhere in the world. A meeting of OPEC members or a harmless general statement from let us say the Saudi oil minister would cause the fluctuation. No doubt, oil prices are volatile.
Interestingly, despite major events unfolding across the globe — possible confrontation between Russia and the Europe, unprecedented outbreak of Ebola in Western Africa, another round of fight against terror in the Middle East and crisis in Libya — oil prices are stable. Is it because of the shale oil or is it just because the biggest oil consumer, the United States, has plenty of oil.
Two years ago, top US officials and energy experts announced with full confidence that the US was not only the biggest consumer of oil but soon it would emerge as the biggest producer as well. Many US oil and gas experts announced that America’s shale oil reserves are more than what Kuwait has. They went as far as saying that the oil from the Middle East was no longer a vital strategic supply source. To be honest this is fine by me and everyone else. But then aren’t we supposed to rewrite some of the history books and petroleum analysis and oil shortage theories?
The US oil experts are simply either informing the world that the US has more oil than it used to claim or they already had oil but wanted to use cheap oil market and had it reserves left untapped for future.
And of course we all know that new oil exploration technologies are used. In 1973 there was an oil crisis and Saudi Arabia was in the spotlight. People in the United States spoke a lot about Saudi Arabia in their press and on the family dinner table listing to CBS Walter Cronkite say (that’s the way it is). And the American public realized that because of the oil crisis they had to change their social habits such as eliminating the regular family Sunday drive. And in addition to this, Americans started to drive slower when President Nixon introduced the 55 MPH highway speed. And people saw the mile long stretch of cars lined up at gas stations. Most depressing was the regular gas station sign that read, “Sorry, out of gas.”
Few years passed and oil shortage continued around the world and many American states introduced rationing by using odd and even numbers. So, was there real oil shortage or was it the so-called “Seven Sisters” trying to make huge profits. Just for the information of the reader. The US population is about 300 million people but it consumes more oil than China, India, Russia, Indonesia and Brazil combined with total population of about 3 billion people. So, what has changed? If there was an oil shortage 40 years ago and there had been a sharp increase in oil consumption all over the world since then, then why the oil glut that we see coming up on the horizon?
There is one more reason due to which we need to rewrite history books and oil energy analyses i.e. every time the US goes to war, people around the world always say, America went to war because of oil. Now it is clear that America has oil in abundance, so historians should come up with some other theory.
These days shale oil has become the hot issue and we have seen significant developments in the field of renewable energy. With the introduction of electric cars, the world is moving toward less reliance on oil. This trend will, definitely, change the strategic map of the world. Nowadays, the US has more oil than the world ever knew. And this is why 30 years ago it was easier to get the blueprint of America top spy plane, the SR-71 Black Bird than it is to know about the American oil barrel. And one important note, US Department of Energy was established only in 1977. Its first director was James Schlesinger. What did Schlesinger do before assuming the post of this department? He used to be the chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Secretary of Defense. Oh, going back to the recent coalition against the Islamic State (IS), did I mention that some of the Iraqi oil is sold by the Islamic State (IS) to some of their neighbors. Finally, to be frank, if the business is about oil, then leave it to the Americans. They discovered it first in Pennsylvania in 1859 and they have plenty of it.
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