“The confluence of technology, opportunity, enforced private property rights, minimum government, and low taxes is working to make North Dakota the poster child for free enterprise. The entire country is benefiting from what’s happening there as well as in Texas. “
When Brantley Hargrove noted in the Dallas Observer on Thursday that, during the last week in May, the United States produced more oil than it consumed (for the first time since February, 1995), he was awfully quick to give nearly all the credit to Texas. But he was proud, nevertheless:
Tight oil formations in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas and the Permian Basin — along with production in North Dakota — allowed the country to meet 88 percent of its energy requirements this spring, Bloomberg reports. That hasn’t happened since 1986.
By the end of this year, it’s predicted [that] the Eagle Ford will be the biggest tight-oil producing play in the country. And unlike the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, there’s no bottleneck, and no shortage of conveyances to get the oil to market. It is, after all, next to one of the largest refinery complexes in the country.
Which is to say, it looks like Texas is going to be oil flush for years to come.
During the last week in May, U.S. oil production averaged 32,000 barrels a day more than were being imported, causing oil inventories to climb to their highest level in 82 years. The United States pumped a total of 7.3 million barrels every day, compared to 7.27 million barrels imported from OPEC and elsewhere. This was inevitable: Domestic oil production has increased by 42 percent over the past five years while imports have slumped by 26 percent over the same time.
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