Quote from bone:
We are awash in hydrocarbons. The US is the Saudi Arabia of Natural Gas. The US is about to overtake Saudi Arabia as the top worldwide producer of crude oil - and that is a very recent development due to new fracking and drilling technology.
The refining capacity is the key. And places like the West Coast and the NorthEast have hurt themselves by making it very difficult for refiners to do business there.
Quote from Brighton:
Bone - The US has a long way to go to surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia in crude oil production if by crude we're referring to something that can be refined into a high-energy liquid transport fuel (its highest value use). I know there are lots of stories about the US currently producing 10 or 11 million barrels of "oil" per day, but when you strip out natural gas liquids (only a small fraction of which can be used as transport fuels) and low-energy, economically questionable ethanol and biodiesel, we're back to a little over 6 mil bbls/day of real, Jed Clampett-style oil.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=M