Center of Gravity in Oil World Shifts to Americas Juan Forero - The Washington Post
go to original May 28, 2012

Technological breakthroughs coupled with a feverish quest for the next major discovery are turning several countries in the Americas into big producers or potential energy players.

LOMA LA LATA, Argentina - In a desertlike stretch of scrub grass and red buttes, oil companies are punching holes in the ground in search of what might be one of the biggest recent discoveries in the Americas: enough gas and oil to make a country known for beef and the tango an important energy player.

The environment is challenging, with resources trapped deep in shale rock. But technological breakthroughs coupled with a feverish quest for the next major find are unlocking the door to oil and natural gas riches here and in several other countries in the Americas not traditionally known as energy producers.

That is quickly changing the dynamics of energy geopolitics in a way that had been unforeseen just a few years ago.

From Canada to Colombia to Brazil, oil and gas production in the Western Hemisphere is booming, with the United States emerging less dependent on supplies from an unstable Middle East. Central to the new energy equation is the United States itself, which has ramped up production and is now churning out 1.7 million more barrels of oil and liquid fuel per day than in 2005.

“There are new players and drivers in the world,” said Ruben Etcheverry, chief executive of Gas and Oil of Neuquen, a state-owned energy firm that is positioning itself to develop oil and gas fields here in Patagonia. “There is a new geopolitical shift, and those countries that never provided oil and gas can now do so. For the United States, there is a glimmer of the possibility of self-sufficiency.”

Oil produced in Persian Gulf countries - notably Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq - will remain vital to the world’s energy picture. But what was once a seemingly unalterable truth - that American oil production would steadily fall while the United States remained heavily reliant on Middle Eastern supplies - is being turned on its head.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

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