Whoa. I had no idea the US was currently producing anywhere near as much fuel as it consumed, much less actually producing more. All my life I've heard people worrying about our dependence on foreign fuel. Wow.
Yep, the US is importing crude and exporting processed goods; we're not producing as much crude oil as we are processing. OTOH, we're also not using as much processed fuel as we're creating, so it's getting exported out. If I understand correctly, this means we're energy-interdependent instead of just energy dependent. :)
I think it also means that, if we stopped importing oil, we'd still have enough for domestic consumption. It would still be horrible for the economy, mind -- you don't want to lose all those refinery jobs. But a different sort of horrible from the net-importer scenario.
According to the article, the US is currently importing 9 million barrels of crude oil per day and exporting 919,000 barrels of refined petroleum products per day. I don't know how much volume is lost during refining, but I find it hard to believe that it's anywhere near 90%. That doesn't sound like we would have close to enough refined products for domestic consumption if we stopped importing crude.
Ah, yeah, I see what you mean. We're exporting more processed oil than we're importing, but still consuming more processed crude than we're exporting. I knew there was a reason I didn't want to make that comment, but I couldn't work out what was wrong with my line of reasoning (for some reason, I thought the article was including crude as a fuel, which of course it doesn't.)
Random WikiAnswers found via Google suggests about 5-10% of crude oil doesn't become fuel of some kind.
I've heard a lot about this in threads mocking Chavez. "They *do* know we're the only people in the world with refineries that can handle their crappy sludge that they call oil, right?"
Of course, this was from FARK which is not known for valuing nuance or, you know, accuracy.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-11-30 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-30 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-30 07:22 pm (UTC)Check the Magnitudes
Date: 2011-12-01 12:43 pm (UTC)Re: Check the Magnitudes
Date: 2011-12-01 01:38 pm (UTC)Random WikiAnswers found via Google suggests about 5-10% of crude oil doesn't become fuel of some kind.
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Date: 2011-12-01 01:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-03 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-30 06:59 pm (UTC)Of course, this was from FARK which is not known for valuing nuance or, you know, accuracy.
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Date: 2011-11-30 07:01 pm (UTC)