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The Outlook for Energy in the United States
At this time of year there is no shortage of commentators and pundits who will look back on 2011 – but rather than do the same on this blog, let’s instead look ahead at what the future holds for America’s energy. For that, I turn to ExxonMobil’s Outlook for Energy, released earlier this month. The published version of the Outlook focuses mostly on global energy trends to 2040. But as part of putting together the Outlook, ExxonMobil also takes a detailed look at individual countries, including the United States. Here are some of our findings.
Oil and gas industry maintenance maintains jobs and investment
There’s no doubt greater domestic oil and gas production can create U.S. jobs. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial cited a fact that jobs in oil and gas production have increased by 80 percent since 2003, and the industry accounted for more than one in five of all net new private jobs in that period. But greater production of oil and gas is only one way the industry creates U.S. jobs.
Access to U.S. energy = U.S. investment
Last week, the oil and gas industry once again “walked the talk” about investing in U.S. energy supplies. On Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held the first federal offshore lease sale since the Macondo well blowout in April 2010. The 20 companies participating in the sale ended up paying almost $340 million to the U.S. government for the right to explore leases in the western Gulf of Mexico offshore Texas.
How many gallons of gasoline would it take to charge an iPhone?
This may seem like a strange question to ask, considering iPhones obviously are charged with electricity, not gasoline. But the answer speaks to why gasoline and other liquid fuels will remain an important part of the energy mix in the future. In ExxonMobil’s recently released Outlook for Energy, we predict that by 2040, about 90 percent of the global transportation fleet will still be powered by liquid petroleum fuels – that is, gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
