Why did the United States change from an oil importer to an oil and gas exporter?

In the past, the United States, like China, was one of the largest crude oil importers in the world. The United States has been importing oil and natural gas from Canada, Venezuela and other countries, but in recent years, it is a miracle that the United States can export its own oil and natural gas. At present, the supply of crude oil in the United States grows at an average annual rate of 14%, and the daily output of crude oil is around 1 1.5 million barrels, ranking first in the world.

In fact, the United States itself is rich in oil shale resources, but in the past, it was difficult to extract rich oil and gas due to limited technology. However, in the 1990s, the drilling company of george mitchell, a Texan in the United States, broke through the shale gas mining technology, mainly through hydraulic fracturing, which triggered an American shale gas revolution, and a large amount of capital flocked into the shale gas development field! For example, in 2009, ExxonMobil Oil Company invested US$ 46,543.80 billion to acquire XTO Energy Company, which occupies a large share in shale gas.

The United States is now the largest producer of shale gas in the world; The shale gas production in the United States is about one-third of the total natural gas production in the United States. From 20 16, the United States will become a net exporter of natural gas and will become a comprehensive exporter in 2020! In the early stage, Americans invested a lot in scientific research, and the United States gradually formed a set of technologies in shale oil and gas, which laid the foundation and conditions for the development of shale oil.

After Americans successfully developed shale gas, they developed shale oil with hydraulic fracturing technology! Shale oil is the petroleum resources contained in shale, including the oil in shale gaps, as well as the oil resources in tight carbonate rocks or clastic rocks in shale series. The global proven shale oil reserves 1 1- 13 trillion tons, far exceeding the oil reserves! America ranks second in the world. In 20 12, the daily output of shale oil in the United States reached 2 million barrels, and it is estimated that the daily output will reach 28 10000 barrels by 2020.

It is the large-scale development of shale gas and shale oil that makes the United States rank first in the world in oil and gas production and transform from an oil and gas importer to an oil and gas exporter. However, in recent years, the United States happens to have a deep contradiction with those oil-rich countries, and the United States often has to sanction them through economic means. Such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela. This will lead to a large gap in the world demand for crude oil, and the United States has earned huge oil and gas profits by expanding its production capacity.

At present, the crude oil supply in the United States is increasing by 14% annually. The daily output of crude oil is about11.5000 barrels. If Iran's oil exports can be reduced to less than 6.5438+0 million barrels and Venezuela's oil exports can be ignored, the United States can further occupy the international oil market share, which creates the possibility for the United States to repay the debt of 22 trillion US dollars. Once the United States pays off all the national debt, the government's fiscal revenue will be more balanced, and not only the US government, but also the credit status of the US dollar in the world will be significantly improved. America's economic strength and technological level will advance by leaps and bounds.

Strictly speaking, the United States is still an importer of crude oil. By 20 16, the energy self-sufficiency rate of the United States will be 86-9 1%. Only in refined petroleum products, the United States became an exporter from 20 1 1. At present, the United States ranks third in crude oil production and second in oil refining.

This is the result of American independent energy strategy. At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States was a big oil exporter, and by the middle of the 20th century, the United States became an oil importer. This is because of the high-speed demand of the American economy and people, and also because the United States protected its own oil reserves and environment and did not exploit it, which led to the 1973 and 1979 oil crises.

After that, the United States began its energy strategy. On the one hand, it stores a large amount of crude oil, which increases the oil import rate of the United States from 35% in 2005 to 60%. On the other hand, it seeks various ways.

The United States itself has a large amount of oil reserves, but in order to protect the environment from exploitation, federal laws and regulations have been revised or abolished in recent years, which is also one of the reasons for the increase in oil production in the United States.

Because of the rise in oil prices in previous years, shale mining can be profitable, which further triggered the revolution of shale mining technology. The shale reserves in the United States rank high in the world, which is another reason for the increase in oil production in the United States.

The development and application of new energy is also the strategy of American energy independence.

In the 2008 general election, a topic of presidential debate was that the United States spent tens of billions of dollars to import oil every year. Since the 20 12 general election, this topic has not existed because the energy strategy of the United States is successful.

Not only will crude oil imports decrease, but it will become a real oil exporter within ten years. Only 15% of imported crude oil comes from other Middle Eastern countries except Saudi Arabia. It is precisely because the United States basically does not rely on imported oil or oil from the Middle East that the United States can make waves in the Middle East, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cannot control oil prices at all.

Energy independence strategy is a very successful grand strategy of the United States in recent years, and it is one of the keys for the United States to maintain global hegemony.

The United States changed from an oil importer to an oil exporter because it developed shale gas and shale oil;

Shale gas is an unconventional natural gas, which mainly exists in shale. It is deeply buried, difficult to exploit and expensive, but it has huge reserves and is widely distributed.

American shale distribution map

Since the 1990s, the drilling company in george mitchell, Texas, USA has made a breakthrough in shale gas exploitation technology, mainly relying on hydraulic fracturing, which triggered the shale gas revolution in the United States, and a large amount of capital poured into the shale gas development field! For example, in 2009, ExxonMobil Oil Company invested $4 1 billion to acquire XTO Energy Company, which has a large share of shale gas, for 20 1 year, and ConocoPhillips also invested $654,380+0.5 billion to develop shale gas;

The United States is now the largest producer of shale gas in the world; At present, shale gas production in the United States accounts for about one-third of the total natural gas production in the United States. From 20 16, the United States will become a net exporter of natural gas and will become a comprehensive exporter in 2020!

The United States not only has a shale gas revolution, but also develops a large number of shale gas, and at the same time transfers the hydraulic fracturing technology brought by the shale gas revolution to the development of shale oil! Shale oil is the petroleum resources contained in shale, including the oil in shale gaps and the oil resources in tight carbonate rocks or clastic rocks in shale series.

World shale oil reserves 1 1- 13 trillion tons, far exceeding oil reserves! The United States ranks second in the world. Due to the advantage of capital, shale oil has been developed on a large scale in recent years by using the hydraulic fracturing technology brought by the shale gas revolution. In 20 12, the daily output of shale oil in the United States reached 2 million barrels, and it is estimated that the daily output will reach 28 1 10,000 barrels by 2020!

This is why the United States has repeatedly suppressed Venezuela and Iran! Only by sanctioning Venezuela and Iran and preventing them from exporting oil can shale gas and shale oil in the United States have a broad market!

It is a miracle that the United States used to import oil, natural gas and other energy from Canada, Venezuela and other countries, but now it can export it for its own consumption.

In fact, this is not surprising, because the United States is rich in oil shale, but in the past, technology was limited and it was difficult to extract rich oil and gas.

But the United States is a country with highly developed economy and technology. What can we do if we have money? The United States has invested heavily in scientific research and gradually formed a set of technologies, which laid the foundation and conditions for the development of shale oil and gas.

Relying on advanced technological advantages and backed by American military and dollar hegemony, the United States began to impose sanctions on traditional oil-producing countries under various pretexts, forcing them to reduce oil production, thus occupying this part of crude oil.

As we all know, in recent years, the United States has imposed sanctions on countries rich in oil resources, such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela. It has also invaded Iraq, Libya and other countries by force, causing the international crude oil market to be in short supply, while the United States has just expanded its production capacity and earned rich oil and gas profits.

Now, it has begun to fan the flames in the Persian Gulf, trying to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero, thus further occupying the international oil market share.

At present, the supply of crude oil in the United States grows at an average annual rate of 14%, and the daily output of crude oil is around 1 1.5 million barrels, ranking first in the world. Iran is the fourth largest country with oil reserves in the world, with reserves exceeding 654.38+05 billion barrels. Affected by US sanctions, before April this year, its daily average export volume was 2 million barrels, making it the seventh largest oil exporter.

It is conceivable that once the United States wins Iran, American oil production and sales will inevitably occupy a dominant position for a long time, which creates the possibility for the United States to repay its debt of 22 trillion US dollars. Once the United States pays off all its national debt, it will inevitably become more and more overbearing in the world, and then human disasters will continue to be staged.

The United States has always been an oil importer and an oil exporter, and there is no direct contradiction between them! To put it simply, the United States originally sold its own oil, and then acted as a middleman to wholesale some other people's oil and sell it in its own oil products to earn the difference. Occasionally, I make huge profits by selling inferior blended oil.

The United States imports oil because it exports goods to those oil storage countries. In order to balance the trade surplus with these countries, the United States adopted the trade mode of exchanging goods for oil, and settled the payment with oil when exporting goods. This barter method is the most common transaction method in the world. For example, the relationship between the United States and Venezuela, the United States has always been Venezuela's largest oil exporter, because the United States exports rice, food and various daily necessities to Venezuela, and Venezuela accounts with the United States for oil exports.

There are three reasons why the United States exports oil abroad. One is that the United States exports a huge amount of goods and gets too much oil at the same price. Americans can not only use up, but also have surplus exports.

Secondly, because the United States itself is a big oil storage country, when goods are exchanged for oil in the United States, American oil mining companies are not idle, and the oil mined is sold when they can't use it up. Especially after the shale oil revolution, it is not surprising that the oil output of the United States has increased greatly and gradually became the world's first exporter;

The last one is because the United States has made huge profits in the blended oil market. It's the same oil, but the oil impurities in different countries are different, so the oil imported from all over the world by the United States is blended, and the inferior oil is blended into high-quality oil to sell, making huge profits.

Because of its huge industrial production and consumption groups, the United States has long been the largest oil importer and the largest net importer in the world. But now, due to the shale gas revolution, the United States has begun to export a lot of oil, but at the same time it is also importing oil. It is easy to understand that oil is imported and exported at the same time. Import oil from the Middle East at a low price and sell local oil to East Asian countries at a high price.

Recently, the oil production of the United States has reached about 6.5438+0.05 million barrels per day, which is close to the oil production of Russia and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates. The crude oil output of the United States has reached a new high 1970, and it will become the largest oil producer in the world in 20 19. By 20 19, the daily output of American oil will reach120,000 barrels.

Although the United States has interest disputes with many countries in the Middle East, it still has reservations when formulating its policy toward the Middle East because of its excessive dependence on oil and gas in the Middle East. Today, the relationship between the United States, Russia and European countries is very delicate. The contradiction between NATO and Russia is deepening, but most European countries need to import a lot of oil and natural gas from Russia, so they are highly dependent on Russia in energy. (Shale gas technology for oil exploitation)

Even if we want to prevent Russia from expanding its power in Europe and Asia through sanctions and other means, we must be careful about the supply of oil and natural gas within European countries. Ukraine, which has a serious conflict with Russia, is also politically constrained by a large number of imported energy. Over-reliance on energy has caused Ukraine and related European countries to lose their right to speak seriously in negotiations with Russia.

However, the shale gas revolution in the United States will subvert the original world pattern. Before shale gas exploitation, the United States actually began to export some processed oil; After the shale gas revolution, the United States will have more oil to export. If oil is exported to western European countries, it will certainly weaken European countries' energy restrictions on Russia and profoundly affect Russia-Europe relations.

This is about the shale gas revolution in the United States.

At the end of 2008, shale gas hydraulic fracturing technology made a breakthrough, and this technological innovation first occurred in the United States.

For a time, with the help of the financial crisis, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises were brought into the shale gas field by a large amount of investment, which further pushed the feasibility of hydraulic fracturing technology to the extreme.

Traditional oil and gas, you can think of it as a jar, we can open it directly and insert a straw to drink water. It has the characteristics of concentrated distribution, high single well reserves, large investment demand, high threshold and great benefit.

And shale oil and gas, you can imagine a book, the pages are mixed with some oil and gas, not concentrated, can not be inserted into a straw. We need to crush the pages first, and then pump out the spilled oil and gas. It is characterized by wide distribution, low single well reserves, low investment demand, low threshold and low benefit.

However, the economic environment in the United States is too suitable for developing this technology. Numerous enterprises closed down, and more enterprises survived. They raised the exploitation of shale gas to American energy independence, turned the world's highest oil futures wti upside down and became the lowest point of global oil futures, and also crushed the oil price to 70 dollars a barrel.

Therefore, the United States does not need to import energy, but also needs to decompress domestic traditional oil and gas enterprises and export oil and gas.

Looking back at China, this model will be difficult to succeed.

One is that the shale composition of the two countries is different, so it is difficult to mine in China, which is polluted and costly.

One is that China does not have such a developed economic system, and the energy market dominated by state-owned enterprises is not good at developing shale oil and gas.

Third, our recoverable reserves are not as much as those in the United States.

So, buy oil honestly.

1. The demand for crude oil in the United States is very large. For a long time, the United States has been the largest importer of crude oil in the world. The United States, which is very dependent on imported crude oil, has also suffered losses in crude oil imports.

As early as 1973, the fourth Middle East War broke out. At that time, the United States angered the oil-producing countries in the Middle East because of its continuous assistance to Israel, which made the oil-producing countries impose a comprehensive embargo on the United States. At that time, America suffered heavy losses. From 1975, the United States promulgated energy policy and energy-saving law, and strictly restricted its crude oil export for 40 years until 2000. This is also the reason why the United States has not exported crude oil on a large scale for decades.

2. With the surge of crude oil production in the United States in recent years, the shortage of crude oil in the United States has been made up to a greater extent. 2018165438+1in the week of October 30th, us energy information administration (EIA) data showed that the total net export of crude oil and refined oil in the United States was 2 1. 1 10,000 barrels per day, 75.

Even when the international crude oil price fell to a low point at the end of last year, the United States was still increasing its crude oil production. Now it is time for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia to cut production and raise prices. However, the purpose of the United States to increase production is also to seize the international crude oil market share. After all, the United States has now achieved great self-sufficiency in energy, and the expanding crude oil exports have made the United States occupy greater initiative in the crude oil market.

Finally, in the final analysis, the United States has changed from a crude oil importer to an exporter today, not only to earn crude oil foreign exchange, but also to seize market share. Its ultimate goal is to master the right to speak in the crude oil market.

In the Obama era, the Republican Party kept pressing him to change the basic national policy and lift the domestic oil export ban. Another background is the shale oil revolution in the United States at that time.

How high was the oil price then? 65,438+000 dollars is not the current concept of 70 dollars. In the capitalist United States, this kind of interest has stimulated a huge amount of money to enter shale oil development. Therefore, on the one hand, the import of the United States has rapidly shrunk from100000 barrels per day to about 9 million barrels, while the export has gradually increased. The increase in exports is eroding the market share of OPEC+Russia.

As a result, the traditional oil-producing countries headed by Saudi Arabia are preparing to stifle American shale oil, and Saudi Arabia continues to increase supply and inventory, leading to a rapid collapse of international oil prices. Six months later, American shale oil merchants closed down one after another.

However, Saudi Arabia's practice is also a suicidal practice. Although the cost of a barrel of crude oil in the Gulf countries is basically around 10, their finance and oil revenue are tied together. According to Saudi Arabia's budget, their balanced oil price exceeds $70. The last generation of Saudi Arabia's rule and the practice of oil chiefs have made the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries unbearable.

Subsequently, at the meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 20 16, all oil-producing countries urged to cut production to boost oil prices, but Saudi Arabia and Iran opposed it. In the end, under great internal and economic pressure, the meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries at the end of 20 16 reached an agreement to reduce production, and the old Saudi oil captain also stepped down, and then the oil price rebounded.

What the above process reveals is that the cost of shale oil in the United States is extremely low (it has reached below $40/barrel after the crisis) and its proportion in domestic GDP is very low, so the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has given them a breathing space and they can quickly cheer up.

Coupled with Trump, the president who wants to revitalize the American manufacturing industry, it has also increased the momentum.

In fact, Trump is right. Oil and natural gas are precious, but there are many alternative energy sources (not to mention them one by one). Trump's genius is that since it is already a sunset industry, why not exchange more funds and transfer wealth? The public reserve data of the United States can be developed for at least 50+ years.

After 20 19 years, two Permian oil pipelines were completed, and we can see that the United States will easily surpass Russia to become the world's largest oil and gas producer-there is no doubt about it.

To sum up, the change of American national policy is correct. They are grabbing the last barrel of gold before the exhaustion of oil resources in 70 years. For other countries with scarce resources, it is more and more urgent to seek more supply and diversified energy structure.