My discussion is more basic, we need independent domestic oil production that is fully linked to its own refineries.
When we buy refined and cracked end products from foreign sources we are dependent on their crude and their distilled products and their pricing.
We need to be self contained and have a national energy policy that does so.
You and I can tear this down to a technical discussion/solution with all the facts at hand that devolves into tactics.
America's problem is new strategic analysis that creates a political solution and the willpower to act.
BTW I was in the Anadarko basin in 1982, with Du Pont, and the sweet crude, although limited, was so much easier and less corrosive to pump and pipe. Sulphur is a big problem and the industrial demand is way less than what is produced by sour crude.
Separating out sulphur cheaply is the key to profitable hydrocarbon (of any kind) production.
We could triple the amount of domestic oil production before reaching the current capacity of our refineries. We would just replace the imported oil with oil from our own domestic sources.
I don't believe we need to replace it all. But I believe we should at least double our production, that would be enough to replace the oil we get from OPEC, where most of our imported oil comes from.
When we buy refined and cracked end products from foreign sources we are dependent on their crude and their distilled products and their pricing.
Yes, but we only import 1.1 MMBPD of motor gasoline and associated components.
We only import 0.3 MMBPD of distillates like diesel and fuel oil.
We do import 10 MMBPD of crude oil. This is to me is the biggest problem we need to address first.
Petroleum Imports by Area of Entry
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_imp_dc_NUS-Z00_mbblpd_a.htm