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US foreign oil imports remain high

Hydrocarbon Engineering,


In his monthly update on the level of foreign oil imports in North America, energy expert T. Boone Pickens said that based on the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. imported 65% of its oil, or 369 million barrels in April 2010, sending approximately US$ 31 billion, or US$ 719,157 per minute, to foreign countries.

“We spent more—US$ 31 billion—on foreign oil in the month of April than any other month yet in 2010. That’s more than a billion dollars a day and a sad step in the wrong direction,” said Pickens. “As the economy recovers, demand and prices will continue to increase. Instead of enriching other countries, we need to get off OPEC oil and make better use of our own abundant supply of natural gas. Using natural gas as a transportation fuel is a non-partisan issue, and now is the time to act.”

Currently, there is bipartisan legislation in both the House and Senate that would advance the use of natural gas. H.R. 1835 and S. 1408 (The NAT GAS Act) and The American Power Act, unveiled last week, all contain language that would replace foreign oil/diesel/gasoline with cleaner, abundant domestic natural gas in America’s heavy duty fleets.

The US government has been seeking ways to reduce its dependence on imported fuel, even going so far as to run test-flights using biofuel in military jets to bring down the need for imported fuel and the associated costs. This record amount of imported oil is all the more surprising when you consider all the fanfare surrounding the discoveries of enormous reserves of shale gas across North America.

Unveiled on July 8, 2008 by T. Boone Pickens, the Pickens Plan calls for expanding the use of domestic renewable resources, such as wind and solar, in power generation and using our abundant supplies of natural gas as a transportation fuel alternative to OPEC oil.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/18052010/us_foreign_oil_imports_remain_high/

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