Thanks for responding. Of course with natural gas, the first thing comes to my 
mind is "Gasland'.  But I suppose if some ot those environmental issues can be 
brought under control, natural gas seems like it will be a big economic driver 
for a while.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joshua Thorp 
  To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 8:01 PM
  Subject: Re: [FRIAM] A Good Question - Should the United States join OPEC?


  This sounds right to me.  There is a lot of finger wagging at Iran for not 
having domestic capacity for petroleum refinement even though they are a crude 
exporter.  So I guess capacity works both ways.  The other thing I know is 
currently a hot topic is natural gas production.  I believe the US has 
increased its production quite a bit lately and is likely to have a lot more in 
the future.




  On Feb 28, 2012, at 8:40 PM, Hugh Trenchard wrote:


    Just as a brief follow up, it seems to me one of the major factors in this 
is that U.S. refining capacity has increased so that there is less need to 
import refined petroleum products.  I haven't researched this in any detail and 
I stand to be corrected on all my assertions, but it seems to me it's not as 
though there are any new sources of US domestic supply or significant increase 
in technological ability to extract previously hard to obtain oil, and likely 
only marginal reduction in demand. There may be some, but my thought is the 
hype on this is rather misleading.  Again I don't have the figures, but my 
guess is that the vast majority of US crude imports likely still come from 
Canada, Mexico, and other western hemisphere nations, which the U.S. refining 
companies refine and re-sell as petroleum products, both for domestic use and 
to export abroad.

    The link below shows some of the definitions used in the petroleum/fuels 
industry. From my skeptical standpoint, the hype could mislead the American 
public toward a false sense of security.  I suppose if it stimulates the 
economy, then that's good, but if it gets people guzzling more gas, then it's 
really just a fool's game.

    http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/TblDefs/pet_move_imp_tbldef2.asp

    From the link: "Petroleum products are obtained from the processing of 
crude oil (including lease condensate), natural gas, and other hydrocarbon 
compounds. Petroleum products include unfinished oils, liquefied petroleum 
gases, pentanes plus, aviation gasoline, motor gasoline, naphtha-type jet fuel, 
kerosene-type jet fuel, kerosene, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, 
petrochemical feedstocks, special naphthas, lubricants, waxes, petroleum coke, 
asphalt, road oil, still gas, and miscellaneous products."
      ----- Original Message -----
      From: Russ Abbott
      To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
      Cc: Hugh Trenchard
      Sent: Monday, February 27, 2012 7:47 PM
      Subject: Re: [FRIAM] A Good Question - Should the United States join OPEC?


      We exported more petroleum products, not more oil. We are still net oil 
importers.


      -- Russ Abbott
      _____________________________________________
        Professor, Computer Science
        California State University, Los Angeles

        Google voice: 747-999-5105
        Google+: https://plus.google.com/114865618166480775623/
        vita:  http://sites.google.com/site/russabbott/
      _____________________________________________ 





      On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 7:42 PM, Owen Densmore <o...@backspaces.net> 
wrote:

        From 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/03/us-becomes-net-exporter-o_n_857085.html

          While some Americans cut back on driving as gas prices soar, the U.S. 
has become a net exporter of fuel for the first time in nearly 20 years.

          According to data from the Energy Department,starting last November 
-- with the exception of the month of January -- the U.S. began exporting more 
petroleum products than it imported.



        This is not the source I got the idea from, its been in the news quite 
a bit lately, this is just the first google hit I tried.


        The theory is that between the recession (thus less use of fuel, both 
supply side and demand), conservation/efficiency, and more recent hi-tech 
oil/gas exploitation (horizontal drilling), the US consumption has dropped and 
the production has increased, causing a net surplus. 


        It certainly is surprising.



           -- Owen



        On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 6:54 PM, Hugh Trenchard <htrench...@shaw.ca> 
wrote:

          Where did you see that the US is now a net oil exporter?  The 
attachments below are 2008 and 2009, but I suspect the picture hasn't changed 
much since then (US imports 75% of its oil for consumption). I believe I saw 
reference to "potential exporter" in the NY Times article. 

          
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/07/26/GR2008072601599.html

          http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdsdigital/4056035804/
            ----- Original Message -----
            From: Owen Densmore
            To: Complexity Coffee Group
            Sent: Monday, February 27, 2012 9:14 AM
            Subject: [FRIAM] A Good Question - Should the United States join 
OPEC?


            Now for something completely different:
              
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/opinion/sunday/friedman-a-good-question.html

            Basically whether or not the US should join OPEC now that it is a 
net oil exporter.  


            Insane as it sounds, there is some reason in the discussion.


               -- Owen



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    Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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  Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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