SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
US Set to Zoom Past Saudi Arabia As Number One Oil Producer
Thanks to "shale revolution," US liquid petroleum production booming, Financial Times reports
Sep 30, 2014
The United States is expected to overtake Saudi Arabia as the number one liquid petroleum producing nation in the world for the first time in over two decades, thanks to America's fracking boom, Financial Times reported Monday.
According to journalists Ed Crooks and Anjli Raval, this could happen as soon as "this month or next."
The article cites information from the International Energy Agency, which shows that "US production of oil and related liquids such as ethane and propane was neck-and-neck with Saudi Arabia in June and again in August at about 11.5m barrels a day." The article argues, "With US production continuing to boom, its output is set to exceed Saudi Arabia's this month or next for the first time since 1991."
The explosion is largely due to a "shale revolution," explains the article, referring to the controversial practice of extracting oil from shale using a process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Organizations and communities across the U.S. have pushed for a ban on this extraction method, due to its role in destabilizing the climate, devastating residents near fracking sites who suffer cancer and disease from water and air pollution, marring natural landscapes, and killing wildlife.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
The United States is expected to overtake Saudi Arabia as the number one liquid petroleum producing nation in the world for the first time in over two decades, thanks to America's fracking boom, Financial Times reported Monday.
According to journalists Ed Crooks and Anjli Raval, this could happen as soon as "this month or next."
The article cites information from the International Energy Agency, which shows that "US production of oil and related liquids such as ethane and propane was neck-and-neck with Saudi Arabia in June and again in August at about 11.5m barrels a day." The article argues, "With US production continuing to boom, its output is set to exceed Saudi Arabia's this month or next for the first time since 1991."
The explosion is largely due to a "shale revolution," explains the article, referring to the controversial practice of extracting oil from shale using a process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Organizations and communities across the U.S. have pushed for a ban on this extraction method, due to its role in destabilizing the climate, devastating residents near fracking sites who suffer cancer and disease from water and air pollution, marring natural landscapes, and killing wildlife.
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
The United States is expected to overtake Saudi Arabia as the number one liquid petroleum producing nation in the world for the first time in over two decades, thanks to America's fracking boom, Financial Times reported Monday.
According to journalists Ed Crooks and Anjli Raval, this could happen as soon as "this month or next."
The article cites information from the International Energy Agency, which shows that "US production of oil and related liquids such as ethane and propane was neck-and-neck with Saudi Arabia in June and again in August at about 11.5m barrels a day." The article argues, "With US production continuing to boom, its output is set to exceed Saudi Arabia's this month or next for the first time since 1991."
The explosion is largely due to a "shale revolution," explains the article, referring to the controversial practice of extracting oil from shale using a process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Organizations and communities across the U.S. have pushed for a ban on this extraction method, due to its role in destabilizing the climate, devastating residents near fracking sites who suffer cancer and disease from water and air pollution, marring natural landscapes, and killing wildlife.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.