US Oil Imports Hit Record 63% Of Total - Reuters

[hatrack]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States imported a record 63 percent of its oil from foreign sources in 2003, government figures showed Wednesday, and oil analysts said that dependence is likely to rise in the new year. Crude imports accounted for 62.9 percent of oil run through U.S. refineries, up from the previous record of 61.7 percent in 2001 and from last year's 61.2 percent, the Department of Energy said.

Twenty years ago, foreign crude accounted for only 28 percent of oil used by the United States, the world's biggest consumer -- then and now.

"Our domestic production has been going down in recent years or has stayed relatively flat, but we're running more and more through the refineries every year," said Doug MacIntyre, analyst with the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA is the statistical arm of the energy department.

EDIT

"Crude imports are going to continue to rise," said George Beranek, oil analyst with the Petroleum Finance Co. based in Washington. "It's just the inevitable result of increasing U.S. oil demand with flat to decreasing domestic supplies."

EDIT

http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=communique&newsid=4766

[frank frankly]

1. peak oil, anyone?

for lots more info on global oil reserves, goto

fromthewilderness.com

[cthrumatrix]

2. Iraq had nothing to do with oil --- Rush said so

[wuushew]

3. Where is the Pro-SUV lobby?

Where are the numerous DUers who claim they "need" some big 4x4 because they choose to live on a mountain or in the boondocks or such. I am waiting.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. US domestic oil production peaked in the '70s.

Now, with the global peak upon us, we have an unprecedented global crisis.

And we know how Bush's White House is responding to the crisis: "domesticate" foreign oil.

[peterh]

5. and we be buying a lot of oil for the SPR….

I don’t think it would even be worth mentioning the possibility that the US might be artificially trying to prop up the market to enhance it’s investment in Iraq…nahhh…nothing there…just me thinking out loud….:eyes:



WASHINGTON (AP)--The U.S. airline industry accused the Bush administration
Thursday of recklessly driving up the cost of oil by purchasing unnecessarily
large amounts of petroleum for the nation's strategic reserves at a time when
prices are already high.
"The government is out buying fuel, it appears, without much regard for the
impact that it is having on prices," said James C. May, the chief executive of
the Air Transport Association, the industry's main lobbying group.
May, speaking to a group of reporters at the association's headquarters in
Washington, said oil purchases made by the Energy Department were adding enough
demand to the world marketplace to drive up the price of oil by more than $6 a
barrel, a major concern for airlines because jet fuel is their second biggest
expense after labor.

The Energy Department is in the process of filling the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve, now at 638 million barrels, to its capacity of 700 million barrels.
Meantime, the nation's commercially available inventory of crude, which
traders watch closely to gauge whether supplies are adequate, is 3% below last
year's levels. For the week ending Jan. 2, commercial supplies stood at 269.0
million barrels, down from 277.5 million barrels a year earlier.
May doesn't oppose the policy of filling the reserve, but he said the
government "needs to be a little more careful about how it goes about buying
fuel on the open market."

[Cocoa]

6. does Iraqi oil count as domestic?

that would help get that number down.

[StClone]

7. Canada is #1

Source of imported crude petroleum.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

[Minstrel Boy]

8. Sometimes I wish our chief export commodity was mad cows.

I'd feel a lot less vulnerable in this new American century.

[Barkley]

20. Ha, ha, ha...

That's a good one!

Be careful of what you ask for: Bush might relegate Canada to the "Axis of Evil" for exporting bio-terrorism to America.

[StClone]

22. Exactly

Bush is insane enough, &*^%ing crazy enough, wild assed enough, with Rove and Rush cheering him to do it. Freep-nuts too!

[Say_What]

9. Pentagon the biggest consumer of petrol on the planet

<clips>

The Pentagon is the largest single consumer of petroleum in the the world. Some figures show that the U.S. military uses enough oil in one year to run all of the U.S. transit systems for the next 14-22 years. In less than one hour a U.S. F-16 fighter jet uses twice as much fuel as the average U.S. auto driver. One-quarter of the world's jet fuel is consumed by the world's military. And worldwide the military consumption of copper, nickel, aluminum and platinum exceeds that of the Free World.

http://www.uwec.edu/grossmzc/schrinrj.html

[Minstrel Boy]

12. fighting wars for oil so they can have oil to fight wars

Stanley Kubrick, we need you.

[hatrack]

13. Or, as the British soldiers used to sing in World War I

"We're here because we're here
Because we're here because we're here!"

(To the tune of Auld Lang Syne)

[Say_What]

14. yep, Bush's Wars Du Jour....

[ramapo]

10. Deja vu all over again

It is so heartening to see the progress made since the energy crisis of the 1970s. We truly are the most forward looking, proactive, civilization ever to live on this planet. It is our contribution to the eventual crash.

[NickB79]

11. ANWR anyone?

I just KNOW some Republican is gonna bring up this report and say "See, we need to drill in ANWR to fight terrorists!"

[jpak]

15. Even if ANWR were developed - oil imports would still rise

The US currently uses ~20 million barrels a day of petroleum products.

US domestic consumption is expected to increase to ~23-25 million barrels per day by 2010 (a 2-3 million barrel a day increase over current demand).

At the peak of its production cycle, ANWR will only produce ~1 million barrels a day of petroleum products.

Unless the US takes serious steps to curtail domestic consumption, oil production from ANWR will not stem the rise in oil imports.

ANWR is the last large petroleum reserve left in the US - and the GOP would squander it all to satisfy the SUV crowd.

A reckonin's a-comin' soon...

[pscot]

16. Cheney's energy bill

is still out there. Be sure we'll see it again.

[tom_paine]

17. So, if we run low we can just keep stealing more

Besides, whqat's the murder of 10,000 nobodies that aren't even Amerikans and aren't even white?

This matters nothing.

</Bushevik Thought Process Generator off>

[SOS]

18. If Carters CAFE standards

had not been undone by Reagan in 1985, the US would have been free of ALL imported oil by 1991.

[daleo]

19. Thus the Iraq war

Yes there are other reasons, too. Religion, misplaced fear of terrorism, Bush's personal vendetta, rally round the flag opportunism, etc. But when you get right down to it, the question will be whether the oil can be extracted at any kind of reasonable cost in blood and treasure. If not, it ends. If so, it continues.

The ultimate is the thermodynamic question - can you get more oil out of Iraq than the military is using up in the effort. I suspect that there is still plenty of net energy in Iraq, though.

[Barkley]

21. And someday soon

we may be buying all that foreign oil with euros instead of $.

[salin]

23. Interesting these spate of 'crisis' stories - heating oil, oil, etc...

the last week or so has seen a rush of these stories. Including one that suggested some higher oil prices were due to the govt buying at a faster rate oil for its strategic reserve and the speculation that this was pushing up "demand" and prices.

Could this all be part of a push to create more urgency for the stalled energy bill? Even Daschle is fighting for the disasterous bill. Call me a cynic - but isn't using the news cycles/stories to help create the perception of immediate need for (preemptive?) action an MO of this administration? No support in the public - well make it a crisis that can only be solved by.... the corporate gouging energy bill!

An example:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0109energy09.html

U.S. will need Bush energy bill, panel declares

Max Jarman
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 9, 2004 12:00 AM


America's insatiable demand for energy will require the development of vast new sources of natural gas, coal and oil and the construction of billions of dollars worth of pipelines, transmission lines and power plants, experts say.

That will require new tax breaks and other incentives to encourage businesses to invest in new infrastructure and more liberal policies about extracting natural resources from government lands, including national forests and wilderness areas.

And, at the bottom line, Congress needs to pass a controversial national energy bill proposed by the Bush administration.

That was the message delivered by a panel of government officials and energy industry leaders Thursday at the annual Summit of the West conference sponsored by the Western Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Jim Glotfelty of the U.S. Department of Energy tried to assuage audience members' fears that the Bush administration may put the National Energy Bill on the back burner now that the president's popularity is on the rise.

"The administration wants a bill," he said.

(more)