2 May 2024

Winning in Ukraine Requires a Serious U.S. Energy Strategy

Stephen Blank & Peter Huessy

The U.S. leads the world in oil and gas production. This enabled Texas by itself to provide a natural gas lifeline to Europe after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine destabilized energy markets, in part due to a near ten percent decline in Russian oil and gas production.

The U.S. could then export significant gas supplies because the U.S. produces 13.3 million barrels a day of crude oil, and 17 million barrels a day of crude oil and condensates, the highest ever, a result in large part due to the new technology of fracking.

The benefits of “drill, baby, drill” are clear. The U.S. in 2023 annually produced 180 million more barrels of oil than the previous 2019 peak. However, with growth in population of 15 million people, and GDP growth of $5.1 trillion, and oil supplies up only 3.6%, oil prices still shot up.

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