The view from the centre of the Barge Veracruz, which can transport more than 8,000 tonnes of crude oil. (UNESCO, BASF)
A top exec at ExxonMobil, the largest American oil company, says doing nothing to halt the decline of oil production in the U.S. will be good for the country, but it will be a “gift to OPEC and Putin.” The Atlantic reports that Rex Tillerson, the CEO, said at a conference in Houston on Thursday: “The United States is vulnerable to price shocks, but it’s not dependent on it. The U.S. has always been a market maker for world supply. … For decades, the crude oil market in the U.S. has been the world price maker, bringing down the world price wherever it is necessary, because of our … export limitations.” A study by Goldman Sachs estimates that, if there was no U.S. cap on exports, Brent crude prices would rise by more than $15 a barrel from current levels, putting upward pressure on a number of U.S. fuel prices. The U.S. increased exports of crude oil by 41 percent between 2015 and 2016.
Tillerson also laid out the importance of domestic production. “As the U.S. produces more energy, the world is convinced that oil, as a percentage of global energy use, is declining. While that may be true in absolute terms, historically that may have been wrong. Our belief is that there is no less oil in the world, or the U.S. is producing more oil.”