It’s no secret North America has been experiencing something of an energy renaissance in oil and gas production. And this resurgence in supplies has been causing quite a stir across the global energy landscape lately.
Cast your mind back to 2005/ 2006 when speculation was rife on whether peak oil had arrived or not.
However just recently, we hear again about this boom in supplies – with the International Energy Agency forecasting at their London conference in October that the continent of North America would become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020, outstripping Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Advances in technology have made this possible. It has enabled the extraction of larger quantities of oil and gas, which were once considered too difficult and expensive to reach.
This massive resurgence in North American oil production has exposed however one of the biggest issues that stand in the way of energy independence: the lack of suitable infrastructure to pipe supplies from end of the continent to the other.
Despite this, a lot of international commentators are offering their two cents on how the energy resurgence is going to change the face of the global energy landscape over the short, medium and long term.
For example, what impacts will increasing sources of supply in North America have on the green energy revolution? Many are now questioning the costly nature for generating renewable energy. In an austere Global economic climate, will Governments still be able to fly the green flag when a cheaper option is to hand. And where does nuclear energy come into the frame?
In terms of geo-politics, questions are also arising on what consequences this resurgence could have on US foreign policy if the country no longer needs to import oil from its traditional sources – such as the Middle East. Is it likely to assume that US interests in this region will diminish in the future?
Whatever the case may be; this is certainly an interesting time to be watching trends. And how best to stay ahead of the curve but by utilizing our award-winning ZEMA Suite, which enables you to collect, organize and distributes all types of data related to an ever-changing energy landscape.
To read more about this topic, read our in-Depth article “The revival of western oil and gas production- It only changes everything” in DataWatch of November 2012.