Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Petroleum imports vs exports: Is this accurate? Is USA energy independent? Is there a valid reason for USA to stay engaged in the middle east?
Well, yes and no. The operative word here is "product". The US is a net exporter of refined petroleum products. But it remains a net importer of crude oil and that isn't likely to change soon. In the coming years the US will export more and more natural gas. The US only imports a small percentage of is oil needs from Arab states. Most US oil imports are sourced from our Canadian neighbors and other countries in the Americas. Further reduction of US oil imports will not eliminate the need to protect Arab oil producing states because our allies are heavily dependent upon Arab oil (e.g. Europe, Japan, etc.) and our allies are critical trading partners and as much as they are dependent upon us, we are dependent upon them. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_exp_dc_nus-z00_mbblpd_m.htm http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=727&t=6
It's not a quantity issue, it's a financial issue. Demand in the US has not kept pace with supply at the new higher prices - part of which is absorbed by falling prices, and part by finding demand elsewhere; meanwhile supply is increasingly from sources more readily and cheaply exportable. As the Keystone Pipeline illustrates, and the multinational nature of the major oil producing corporation's dealings confirms, no country is oil "independent" unless they have nationalized enough of their oil production. What Exxon produces in US continental waters is not US oil - it's Exxon's oil.
Yes No we still import a fair amount of oil. We just now export more than we import. Same reason we have to stay engaged with any foreign countries. (There are reasons other than "we need their oil.")
Name a few that would be worth the 3 to 6 trillion dollars we will have spent on the Iraq/Afghanistan adventurism when the dust settles?
?? Not even Iraq or Afghanistan is worth the trillions we spent on it. So the answer is "none." However, that wasn't the question.
one of the questions was; Some of our engagement is derived from the state department letter of agreement in which we agree to defend the oil fields of those who will trade oil only in us dollars. Would it be wise to unwind this agreement?
It is interesting to note that you continue to use the same methodology in your posts. Acquire a hidden agenda; gradually reveal it through questions designed as traps, but generally appearing as examples of blatant bias; then keep stirring until you get bored. I suppose there is something to be said for consistency.
Let nothing be preferred to the work of God. Shall I make a casket for you? .............................................. Meanwhile: Answer the bleeding question!
from "Trappist" to Trappist Monks who make caskets/coffins to be self sufficient in their monasteries. ......... sorry, no offense intended, it's just the way what's left of my mind works. They have a monastery here in Iowa, with a casket workshop on the other side of monastery road. is their motto.
