For decades I argued it was great that America was importing oil from the Middle East and Russia. I said “let our potential future enemies pump out their oil and sell (relatively) cheaply to us in good times, let’s save America’s oil for last, we might need oil
during an economic depression or WWIII…” As we approach those possibilities, America is preparing, ramping up domestic oil production and initiating new tariffs to make foreign imports more expensive and encourage domestic production of goods – which is a tactical step if leaders see the likelihood of wars with current trade partners as future adversaries.
As oil prices stay high enough to make North American oil production profitable, Yahoo and Bloomberg note:
“North Dakota’s oil production surged to a new record in July, putting the mid-western state on par with OPEC member Venezuela.
Home to the Bakken shale play, North Dakota pumped 1.27 million barrels a day in July, according to state figures released Friday. That’s roughly the same output as Venezuela during the month. The South American nation, whose oil industry has collapsed amid a prolonged financial crisis, saw production fall further in August to 1.24 million barrels a day — about half the level seen in early 2016, according to data from OPEC secondary sources.
Soaring output from shale formations, including the Bakken, helped the U.S. overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia to likely become the world’s biggest oil producer earlier this year, according to preliminary estimates from the Energy Information Administration. At the same time, Venezuela’s output is expected to tumble even lower, to 1 million barrels a day by the end of the year, according to the International Energy Agency.”
I am willing to acknowledge that the oil boom in North Dakota has not been stable and level. Jobs and populations and business growth soared into 2014, then fell before rising up again recently. Many lost jobs and had to relocate. Some businesses overbuilt for extended boom times and overcapacity leads to failures. Constant adjustments are part and parcel of capitalism, business cycles, and changes in technology and supply and demand. These will always be in flux, but capitalism still only suffers a fraction of the woes of socialism – as too much government control extends imbalances and makes the inevitable fall and readjustment harder. So socialist Venezuela might not be the only big failure on the horizon; many other nations and international organizations are in danger from economic collapse and war soon too…
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