Oil: Facts and Figures

Boone Pickens is getting lots of headlines. He tells us high oil prices are here to stay. He says that it is simply a world with demand of 87mm barrels of oil per day with supply of 85mm. He instructs us to not think about it any other way. Fine.Did you know that after Saudi Arabia and Canada, our third biggest trade partner for oil is Mexico? And guess what, Mexico is running out of oil. I’ve read comments from some analysts suggesting Mexico will ship its last barrel of oil to the U.S. in 2014, as they’ll need every drop for their own citizens.

Did you know that North Sea oil production peaked some time in the late 1990’s and by 2004, the U.K. became an importer of oil?

I think you are going to hear more and more about the shift in import/export of oil as another crucial reason the price of oil has risen. As for speculators and what not, you decide how much sway they have!

Finally, in the last ten years or so, China’s oil consumption has doubled and they are importing over half of their needs today as opposed to exporting excess oil in the early 1990’s.

Where does that leave us? Good Luck.