Just How Important Is the United States' Oil Surge?

Source: wikipedia

Will the United States once again emerge as an oil swing producing country with the capacity to fill supply gaps when emergencies hit, or unexpected demand picks up in the short term? Will the United States overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer by 2020?

Both of these issues are cleverly debated in a recent article titled, Saudi America, from The Economist, and while the United States has a legitimate shot of being the world's largest oil producer, being a swing producer and having the ability to limit oil price spikes will likely never come to fruition. To become a swing producer again, the United States would need ample capacity to bring oil to market in a timely manner, and have either a large supply of conventional oil reserves, which we do not, or significantly increase the size of our strategic oil reserves.   

This segment is from Tuesday's edition of "Digging for Value," in which sector analysts Joel South and Taylor Muckerman discuss energy and materials news with host Alison Southwick. The twice-weekly show can be viewed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It can also be found on Twitter, along with our extended coverage of the energy and materials sectors @TMFEnergy.