Scary Stuff

The stickiness of gas prices above $4/gallon and the proximity of the July4 holiday and peak driving season has sparked a plethora of nonsense from the usual suspects. The clowns in Washington are advocating a policy of drill,drill drill, offering that as a way to gain energy independence. After all, there is so much untapped oil right here in the USA. Combine that lunacy with the usual media blowhards that are hammering "speculators" and the Saudi's and pretty soon it's easy to miss an important story. I found the EIA Net Export #'s inside of a post by Westexas, on TheOildrum.com. Take a look. ( click on chart for sharper image)






Here's the deal. What we are seeing is a net decline in exports over the past couple years. I'm sure the circumstances are different in each particular country, ranging from more domestic use ( maybe Iran and Venezuela) to depletion ala Norway and Mexico. It's interesting that Russia is at the top of the list as far as net positive goes. I see a big comeback for the Russian bear. What is not getting factored into any mainstream conversation is that this decline in net exports might not be a one off event. There is a school of thought that says that as many of these export countries see more and more oil revenue, their societies will grow economically and they will end up using more and more of their crude oil production domestically. If that ends up being the case we here in the US are really up the creek.