Why Are US Oil Imports on the Up?

Over the past five years the US has slashed its dependence on oil imports, a trend that’s largely been fueled by a massive increase in national production. Now, US oil production is falling which has led to an increase in oil foreign imports. With American motorists flocking to the bowsers in order to take advantage of low gasoline prices, the need to bring in fuel from foreign providers is on the rise, with Nigeria playing a significant role as a supplier.

The escalation comes less than 12 months after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries made an executive decision to loosen its hold on the US market, despite the fact that global prices were plummeting. Now member countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq are fighting to win back the valuable share they surrendered to Texas and North Dakota based oil companies during the crash.

From slump to surge

The oil slump kicked off back in 2010, with US crude imports going on to decline by 20% over the next four years. The drop was largely triggered by the rise of the domestic energy boom, and a huge increase in national production.

However in the wake of a national production slump, the USA has been forced to up its imports, with a rise of 1.7% between April and July. This marks three months of growth. The Energy Information Administration also reported growth within the light crude industry, with imports rising from 5.6% to 11% in the same period.

So what’s fuelling the resurgence of US crude oil imports? One of the key causes is the national slowdown of America’s shale oil output.

“Production declines are taking hold,” explains Gary Ross, head of global oil at consulting firm PIRA Energy Group. As there is no surplus demand outweighs supply, thus forcing the USA to import from other countries.

“There’s just not enough light barrels to go around today,” adds Adam Bedard, chief executive of Denver based shipping and trading company, ARB Midstream.

The oil industry is defined by a myriad of technologies, including next generation energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence. ‘Modern EDXRF in the Petroleum Industry’ analyses the commonly used technique that sees source x-rays injected into samples. These actively eject the innermost electron of an atom, leaving a hole that is then filled by an electron in an outer shell. The detection system then uses electros to process signals and display data as a spectrum of intensity peaks. Sophisticated software then relates the intensity of a peak to its elemental concentration in order to offer scientists an in-depth overview of the relationship.