According to Jeff Rubin, in his book Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller (2009) (read my review of Jeff Rubin here), the U.S. is two-thirds dependent upon foreign oil sources. That means roughly 66% of its oil usage comes from other countries. Do you know which ones? I’ll tell you one thing. Iraq is not in the top 5. You may be surprised to know that the largest exporter of oil to the U.S. is actually not even in the Middle East…. it’s Canada.
The top five sources of U.S. oil imports:
1. Canada. Specifically, the Canadian oil sands (northern Alberta), which is a large patch of extremely difficult-to-extract bitumen (oil mixed with sand), so thick that even after heating it doesn’t flow easily and its extraction has atrocious environmental side effects. Sadly, it requires one unit of oil energy for every three extracted. This is not an efficient number at all. Turning to Canada’s oil sands, as rich and plentiful as they are, is truly scraping the bottom of the world’s oil barrel. Worse, the extraction here isn’t even profitable if oil prices can’t stay above $90 or so. Since the 2008 recession, projects have been canceled left and right in the oil sands.
2. Saudi Arabia. Historically has been the world’s largest cheap and easy-flowing oil supply, but the fact now is that the Saudis keep true reserve numbers under close wraps. We don’t know exactly how much they really have left. But what is true is that export numbers from Saudi Arabia to the U.S. are falling. Moreover, “in 2008, Saudi King Faisal claimed the desert kingdom needed $75-per-barrel oil to justify any expansion of its production capacity.”
3. Mexico. The reason Mexico is no longer #2 on the list is that its exports are falling even faster than Saudi Arabia’s. They’re falling so rapidly that soon Mexico will not even be an exporter of oil at all.
4. Venezuela also has oil sands, in the Orinoco region, but production here is also stagnating. “The country’s exports haven’t grown in a decade.” And it’s not due to politics. Falling oil prices even sent Chavez back to courting multinationals.
5. Nigeria. According to Rubin, “while Nigeria has the capacity to produce roughly two and a half million barrels a day, it never actually does. Anywhere from 500,000 to 1,000,000 barrels per day is typically offline because of attacks on either pipelines or rigs.” For the same reasons, new production can’t get very well underway. Nigeria can’t be counted on as a reliable fossil fuel source going into the future.
What do all these sources have in common? Their exports are slowly, predictably, or problematically (for economic or political reasons) drying up. And this doesn’t even look at the oil needs of all the other countries in the world.
Not only are foreign sources for new U.S. money borrowing predicted to dry up, but foreign sources of all the oil guzzled in the U.S. are definitely drying up. If U.S. consumers can make dramatic changes to their energy usage (not just driving cars, but even eating locally), it can help slow fossil fuel decreases and address this imbalance. Of course, China and India might still step up and continue guzzling for everyone else, but that’s another point. And what may or may not really surprise you is who’s using the most oil per capita…. hint: who has the most oil? I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow.
You might also want to read yesterday’s article, 10 Fast Facts About The World’s Declining Oil Supply.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This reminds me of one of the funniest things I’ve heard in some time…
Maybe you’ve heard of The Yes Men? If not, Wikipedia has a pretty good entry. Anyways, they pulled a stunt at a big-time oil conference in Canada. It was simply brilliant (and hilarious), and I bet it had even those cold-hearted oil CEOs rethinking their ways. The Wiki gives a brief overview of it, but this article goes a little bit more in-depth. -http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/yes_men_strike_/
I’ll be interested to see who uses the most oil per capita. I would guess we do, but because of your hint I’m not so sure…
They were also the people who, a few years ago, posed as Dow Chemical representatives and issued a fake apology on TV for the disaster in Bhopal.
Hey I am all about getting off foreign oil, energy efficiency and using alternative energy. I have never understood why both sides cannot meet in the middle? We still need oil, our country function mostly off oil. We cannot keep consuming like we are though.
Why did the United states purchase Alaska? I would hope for the resources that it provides. I think we should be drilling while at the same time gearing up (hardcore) on alternative energy (wind, solar, etc..)
Just my thoughts
@Blake – thanks, I’ll check that out….
@Atlas – the U.S. would be able to drill offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, but the problem there is hurricane risk. Katrina alone set back their projects by about 8 years, and they’re still trying to rebuild their rigs. Katrina completely tore them apart. Also, the oil down there isn’t as easy to pull up and it’s much more expensive. Rubin’s point is that we’re rapidly running out of the cheap, easy oil in the world. So you’re right, he would agree that the best solution is that individuals learn to lower their energy consumption – because all the alternative energy isn’t going to be able to allow us to consume at today’s rates.
Good timing. Boone Pickens was on CNN today discussing China’s push to secure oil from Canada.
@Matt – one Hong Kong billionaire already owns part of one major Canadian oil company…. but like Rubin says…. they can buy, but they’re not getting much… there’s tons of oil up there but it’s all mixed with sand. They will almost spend more energy (and $$) just trying to get at it than the energy it would provide.
Understood. It’s more of locking it up for future use. China has been doing it with lots of basic commodities lately. Iron ore, copper, you name it, they’ve been trying to guarantee its availability for the future.
Lets just hope in Canada, we don’t give it all away like other nations have…
Fare trade I say and fare deal.
Let the dollar rise. When they come knocking down our door, make the dough then…
Until then, they have to change.
Status quo is going to do great harm to the world as a whole.
Pollution knows no boundaries.
we burn through approx 85,000,000 barrels of oil a day (everything from the food on your table to the oil you burn to get to work… that isn’t changing any time soon. Yet, technology is there to work from home… it would cause long term growth as well…).
Consider that a gallon (43 gallons in a barrel) contains 30,000 calories we burn.
Thats some place around 10965×10E10 calories a day.
Simple physics says – energy is consumed and transfered.
Can mother nature handle us….
Don’t think so.
I hear a lot of chitter chatter not much action to change our ways.
Canada included.