President Barack Obama today hailed the US oil and gas boom, saying the US will meet his goal of cutting oil imports in half this year rather than by 2020.
During a speech on the US economy at Northwestern University, Obama said that "for the first time in nearly two decades, we now produce more oil than we buy from other countries.
"We are now advancing so fast in this area that two years ago I set a goal to cut our oil imports by half by ... 2020," Obama said. "We will meet that goal this year, six years ahead of schedule."
When Obama made that pledge to cut oil imports in half by 2020 during his re-election bid in September 2012, the US was importing 8.38mn b/d of crude, according to the US Energy Information Administration. In July, the US imported 7.62mn b/d, a 9pc decline. The US exported 401,000 b/d of crude in July.
But the White House said Obama was referring to net crude and petroleum imports, which in 2008 before the took office averaged 11.1mn b/d and which during the first seven months of 2014 averaged 5.4mn b/d, a 52pc decline.
Those numbers reflect the surge in exports of US refined products, as US refiners take advantage of the cost advantage offered by lower priced US crude to find new markets overseas.
Obama credited his own energy policies for the US boom.
"So right off the bat, as soon as I came into office, we upped our investments in American energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and strengthen our own energy security. And today, the number-one oil and gas producer in the world is no longer Russia or Saudi Arabia. It's America."
Responding to the speech, industry trade group the American Petroleum Institute president Jack Gerard said "Our energy renaissance has occurred despite White House policies, thanks primarily to the support of private investors and state governors who have worked diligently to support new development."
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