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Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

US to Become ‘Net Energy Exporter’

Author:     CHRIS ARSENAULT
Source:     Al Jazeera (Qatar)
Publication Date:     07 Jan 2013 16:28
 Link: US to Become ‘Net Energy Exporter’
Stephan:   This piece in Al Jazeera puts together what U.S. corporate media will not: the long range strategic plan of the carbon energy forces. Not a pretty picture, although incredibly profitable. Particularly when you don't have to pay for the environmental damage you do, because you've rigged the government to make sure the taxpayers pick up the tab. A word about Al Jazeera: I have been following this network for months now, and have been impressed with the quality of their reporting. They have hired a large number of BBC reporters, and some very good American ones, and they consistently and accurately cover stories U.S. media does not, or not as well.

The US is set to become the world’s biggest oil producer in 2017, overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia [AFP]

Some industry veterans believe it’s the biggest development in the energy game since 1859, when the first US oil well gushed from beneath the earth in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

In changes that would have been unthinkable just five years ago, the US is set to become a net energy exporter in the next few years, thanks to the controversial process of fracking that is re-wiring geopolitics and the world of energy.

The practice of shooting steam and chemicals into shale rock formations to unlock energy sources previously considered marginal has ‘changed the world’, according to one lawyer with more than 40 years of experience negotiating natural gas contracts.

‘We are talking about increases [in natural gas production] of 15 to 20 percent per year,’ George Washington University law professor Richard Pierce told Al Jazeera. ‘The US is now 100 percent independent in natural gas and within the next half a dozen years [North America] will be independent in oil. It will become a global supplier, rather than a demander, in a hurry.’

‘Once-in-a-lifetime experience’

New technologies to access hard-to-reach fuels mean that, in 2012, the United States experienced […]

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