Thursday, April 24, 2014

If Texas Were a Separate Nation, It Would Be No. 8 in the World for Oil Production

Mark Perry writes:
Thanks to the ongoing boom in Texas shale oil production, primarily in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale oil fields (both now producing more than one million barrels of oil per day), the state’s crude oil output doubled over the last 30 months to 2.874 million barrels per day (bpd) in January (most recent month available). The Lone Star State is pumping so much crude oil, that as a separate oil-producing county, Texas would now be the 8th largest oil-producing nation in the world based on monthly international oil production statistics released today by the Energy Information Administration for December 2013 (see chart above). In December, crude oil production in Texas of 2.826 million bpd moved the state up two places in the international rankings for oil output compared to the last time international oil production data were available...
Since all indications point to the continued expansion of the state’s oil output, we can expect the Texas oil story to get even bigger and better in the future. At the current pace of annual increases of 25% or more in recent months, Texas crude oil production has probably already surpassed 3 million bpd, and could easily surpass the 4 million milestone by the middle of next year. In that case, Texas may already be out-producing Iraq and will pass Iran sometime later this year to take the No. 6 spot behind Canada...To help understand how fast oil output has increased in Texas, consider that just four years ago in May of 2010, the state as a separate country would have been the 20th largest oil producing nation in the world. In May 2011, Texas moved to the No. 18 spot, then moved to No. 14 in May 2012, then to No. 10 in May last year, and to No. 6 by December 2013. It’s remarkable that it took only about three and-a-half years for Texas to move up 12 places in the world oil production rankings, from the No. 20 spot to No. 8, and “Saudi Texas” will likely move to the No. 6 position later this year.
RANKCOUNTRYDAILY CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION  (1,000 BARRELS), DEC 2013
1Russia10,118
2Saudi Arabia9,740
3United States7,864
4China4,215
5Canada3,822
6Iran3,200
7Iraq2,925
8Texas2,826
9UAE2,820
10Kuwait2,650

This boom in Texas oil productivity is playing an important role in keeping price inflation subdued in the U.S. Just remember, though, the Federal Reserve has the capability to out-print the productivity gains at any time and eventually it likely will.

8 comments:

  1. I wonder what a stat like this does for the Texas succession movement ?

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    1. There is no Texas secession movement. There are idiots who don't understand the Constitution.

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    2. JW Koch funded troll

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    3. More irony from the wolf gang of Constitution nuts: "There are idiots who don't understand the Constitution." If only most of the nuts were leftists, many difficulties of American politics would be easier to overcome.

      Now, speaking of bloodthirsty gangsters and Constitution nuts, none of those conservatives want to give a good explanation about Article VII. But they need to answer some questions about it. For example: How could the clause of Article VII have been licit for its ostensible purpose BEFORE "Establishment" of the great Constitution of the USA? If the clause was licit, then it must have been established severally from the Constitution, before the magical day of 21 June, 1788. Without this prior lawfulness, one cannot know that conventions are appropriate or that nine states are needed.

      Yet there's no evidence of A7 being established severally, and arguing from tradition---that it was established by tradition---is fallacious. The latter fact, however, hasn't stopped a pious Constitution nut from claiming (via e-mail) that the same trick is employed in statutes, thereby undermining other scribbling also called law. Others might argue instead that there's a tradition of establishing constitutions in the manner of the US Constitution. Nevertheless, a long habit of not thinking a tradition wrong isn't enough to make it right.

      The Constitution nuts merely presuppose the lawfulness of Article VII. Then they combine their unwarranted assumption with the premise that nine states' conventions ratified the whole Constitution. From their deposit of false premises they leap to the conclusion that the other six articles, too, are law. The circularity is obvious, and we lack a good alternative explanation to justify belief in "Establishment". So how about it if we not resist a better conclusion?

      The Constitution is a clever republican hoax. Populist and popular, yes, but a hoax all the same.

      It so happens that I'm reminded of a conversation that I had with E.S., a homeless, Jewish leftist in Lincoln Park (City of Chicago), during the fall of 2012. At the time, E.S. declined to give a coherent explanation about how to establish a democratic government democratically. The problem is as follows: An attempt to establish democracy by voting would presuppose the existence of a licit democratic government to organize and to carry out the popularity contest. It would presuppose also the existence of a licit government to impose the results, if the democrats happen to win their popularity contest. Still further, without the popularity contest, the pretense of democracy needs to be abandoned.

      Many months later, E.S. told me that he had found an answer to the democracy dilemma, but he added that he couldn't remember the explanation. It would seem that, like other noxious religions, the religion of democracy needs its obscurantism. This is interesting, for democracy---like Islam, Christianity, and Judaism---has a god with alleged authority, but like those other religions it hasn't a scrap of evidence to substantiate ridiculous claims to legitimacy made on behalf of the god. Democracy--like Islam, Christianity, and Judaism---has also no shortage of fanatics to speak in the name of the alleged god and no shortage of prized tools such as obscurantism, deceitfulness, and the sword.

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    4. The Constitution is a non sequitur. Government violence is the only barrier to secession.

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  2. open you eyes. Succession is happening worldwide, today. The fact that Texas was once a independent Nation only helps her case.
    On a separate note, why are there no B.L.M. agents in Texas? Look at the history/treaties involved.

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  3. This is great news for Texas, but doesn't do enough for the US oil production/consumption balance. We still consume 6 to 8,000,000 BPD more than we produce. I gave some backup info in my comment to your previous story yesterday:
    http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/04/us-was-worlds-largest-petroleum.html

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