The White House website has presented the last decade’s data on oil production, imports, and prices to show that we are producing more and importing less. They also show that oil prices are more set by worldwide economic events and Middle East uncertainty than by domestic production. The data is all in one large figure at http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/wh_gasprices_large.jpg. I will summarize some of it here. The problem is that when results are often presented in percentages, it does not give an accurate picture of what the real numbers are.
The most dramatic result is that the number of oil rigs in operation has jumped from around 200 in the last decade to 1200 by the end of this year. Domestic output has slowly increased back to about 6 million barrels a day. This is over 2 billion barrels in 2011, for a 13% increase in the first three years of the Obama administration. The site emphasizes that the US has 2% of the world’s oil reserves, but uses 20% of its oil.
The cost of oil breaks down as 76% for the cost of crude, 6% for distribution and marketing, 6% for refining, and 12% for taxes.
Petroleum products from a barrel of oil break down as 20 gallons of gasoline, 10 of diesel, 7 other uses than fuel, 4 jet fuel, and 4 for the rest.
The President and website emphasize that we are still subsidizing US oil companies even though the industry has been in business over a hundred years. The previous article on my blog discussed the $137 billion oil company profits from 2011 for the five largest oil companies operating in the US.
