США впервые за много десятилетий стали нетто-экспортёром нефти и прочего горючего
The U.S. became a net exporter of oil and refined fuels last week for the first time in decades, a symbolic milestone that would have seemed unthinkable just 10 years ago.
The shift to net exporter from importer, detailed in weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration , may be short lived. Still, it demonstrates that America is moving closer to achieving "energy independence" as the shale revolution makes the country one of the world's top oil producers and reshapes global markets.
Reducing American dependency on oil imports has been an intense focus of executives and presidents from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush , none of whom anticipated a renaissance in U.S. drilling.
Since the Arab oil embargo 45 years ago, which sent crude prices up and created painful supply shortages, the problem of scarcity had defined U.S. thinking and strategy around oil, the world's economic lifeblood. But the fracking boom, which has spurred massive increases in drilling from Texas to Appalachia, has sharply lessened reliance on foreign energy sources.
America is now the world's top producer of oil and natural gas. This week in Vienna , the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is once again weighing whether to curtail production, a decision driven in part by surging American oil output, which has topped 11 million barrels a day.
The U.S. exported 3.2 million barrels of oil a day during the week that ended on Nov. 30 , along with about 5.8 million barrels a day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other products. Those exports exceeded combined imports of 8.8 million barrels a day in the week, making the country a net exporter, according to the EIA. This is the first time the U.S. has been a net exporter since at least 1973, federal data show.
While many analysts don't expect the distinction to last long this year, it may occur for a sustained period next year or in 2020, according to some forecasts. Oil and natural gas production continues to grow at a breakneck pace, and dozens of companies are spending billions of dollars to build out infrastructure for exports of everything from crude and natural gas to plastics components, mostly along the Texas Gulf Coast .
Although "energy independence" has been an important symbolic threshold for generations of American politicians and executives, market observers still point out that the oil and gas market is global and interdependent.
"We are a dominant energy power and a refiner to the world, but we still depend on markets for tens of millions of barrels of imports every day," said Ed Hirs, an energy economist at the University of Houston .
The U.S. became a net exporter of natural gas last year. Ten years ago, either development seemed all but impossible, as U.S. production declined rapidly. Crude and petroleum product imports rose to a record of more than 13 million barrels a day in 2005, and many U.S. executives and politicians were seeking to prepare for massive imports of natural gas.
Write to Bradley Olson at Bradley.Olson
wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
This article was corrected on Dec. 10, 2018 didn't make clear in the sixth paragraph that the figures were daily figures. The U.S. exported 3.2 million barrels of oil a day during the week that ended on Nov. 30 , and about 5.8 million barrels a day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products.