8/29/2009

'Over a Barrel, The Truth About Oil'

Interesting story from ABC News 20/20 on America and oil.
(volume is low, so turn it up)

They love to bash speculators and have some interesting things to say about us. To me, a speculator, the story moves to an opinion rather than the "truth about oil" at that point. Every commodity is traded many times over before it hits the consumer, oil just happens to be the most important and is non renewable. Hence over the next 50 years or so price will continue to go up unless some viable alternative to it is found.

If you are in the U.S. you can watch it here.



They brush over the American source of "friendly" oil, namely Canada. I wonder what percentage of Americans know that Canada supplies them with more than double the petroleum than any other country?

American Petroleum Imports
Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries
June 2009 Import Highlights: August 28, 2009
Monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in June 2009 has been released and it shows that three countries exported more than 1.00 million barrels per day to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 64 percent of United States crude oil imports in June while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 82 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports. The top sources of US crude oil imports for June were Canada (2.001 million barrels per day), Venezuela (1.119 million barrels per day), Mexico (1.099 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (0.902 million barrels per day), and Nigeria (0.769 million barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Angola (0.435 million barrels per day), Iraq (0.374 million barrels per day), Russia (0.305 million barrels per day), Columbia (0.286 million barrels per day), and Brazil (0.269 million barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 9.172 million barrels per day in June, which is an increase of (0.241) million barrels per day from May 2009.

Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum in June, exporting 2.529 million barrels per day to the United States, which is an increase from last month (2.206 thousand barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Venezuela with 1.237 million barrels per day.

Total Imports of Petroleum (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country YTD 2009
CANADA 2,417
VENEZUELA 1,180
MEXICO 1,274
SAUDI ARABIA 1,084
NIGERIA 679
RUSSIA 638
ALGERIA 484
ANGOLA 547
IRAQ 471
COLOMBIA 283
BRAZIL 356
UNITED KINGDOM 262
VIRGIN ISLANDS 306
KUWAIT 174
NORWAY 136

Source: U.S. Government, Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration

7 comments:

TimC said...

Rest assured Sol, if evil-doers ever attack the US again, we will invade your country, killing tens of thousands of your people so that you have the freedom you desire. Of course, this has nothing to do with your oil.

Solfest said...

Oh! Maybe we should just keep these Canadian oil reserves our little secret then.

EIT said...

daytrader i seem to remember a similar american argument made to substantiate the invasion of iraq.......

oh and sol - surely you are a trader of oil, not a speculator.

speculation involves economic crystal ball gazing and predicting future prices over the medium to long term - and, if necessary, the financial clout to hire tankers to sit offshore till the price moves in your favour....

Solfest said...

Oh, then yes I am definitely a speculator.

Solfest said...

EIT I don't speak for daytrader but I think that was his point.

TimC said...

Sol feel free to speak for me. It makes me sound more intelligent.

EIT yes that was my point. Too many in the US believe the price of a gallon of gas is more important than the lives of innocent people who did nothing to deserve being killed.

Unfortunately, these same people will come up with "alternative" reasons for their means to justify their ends.

Sol please excuse the political opine.

Solfest said...

That's ok DT. It's hard to talk about oil without eventually getting to politics.