“And to think that there are still people who continue to preach that peak oil is coming down and that fracking has no future…!” This comment escapes an expert after looking at the recent data from the Proved Reserves of Crude Oil and Natural Gas in the United States, Year-End 2021 that has just been published by the United States Department of Energy.
Because the numbers paint a picture without nuance: Americans are swimming in a sea of oil and gas like never before. The level of proven reserves, that is, of those deposits with commercial viability for their release to the market, are at all-time highs.
The turning point came in 2008 during the financial crisis. Fracking, with its many ups and downs, opened up new energy options in the world's largest consuming country, which is also now on the podium of the states with the highest hydrocarbon production.
Between 2016 and 2018, US oil holdings and natural gas prices and reserves increased by about 9% each year. This trend was interrupted in 2019 due to the fall in prices (-15% for crude oil; -20% for natural gas) and, in 2020, due to the covid effect, demand and proven reserves decreased for both fuels.
But in 2021, the demand for oil and natural gas increased by 5% accompanied by a rebound in prices. And so "proved reserves increased for both fuels, setting a new US record for natural gas," the study reads. For oil, we are talking about the fact that today there are 41,000 million barrels of crude to be exploited. In 2008 they were half. For gas, more than 182 trillion cubic meters: never seen before.
The other side of the coin is the results of the oil giants. In 2022, with the prices of WTI crude reaching up to 130 dollars, fracking became very profitable again. The year of the Ukrainian war (2022) was the best in its history for Exxon, Shell, Chevron, BP and Totalenergies, which between them earned some 200 billion net profits. This has caused angry reactions from both the United Nations secretary, António Guterres (“their business model is inconsistent with human survival”) and the US president, Joe Biden (“these are outrageous benefits” ).
But with the OPEC cartel forecasting an increase in oil demand this year (about 2.2 million barrels a day) and a war that is far from over, it is hard to imagine anytime soon that the music for Big Oil will change. . Especially for the Americans. Sitting in a sea of reserves. All they have to do is open the tap or drill a rock to continue earning money.
