GGP: Will The Trump Administration Spur US Oil & Gas Development?
The statements, opinions and data contained in the content published in Global Gas Perspectives are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s) of Natural Gas World.
This is an excerpt of an article by the Baker Institute, also published by Forbes on March 29, 2017.
Whether you believe that the recent U.S. oil and natural gas boom happened because or in spite of former President Barack Obama’s policies, one thing cannot be disputed: it happened. The question is whether President Donald Trump, whose campaign promised a pro-fossil agenda, will actually provide a boost to U.S. oil and gas production above the policies of the Obama administration.
Over the last eight years, U.S. oil production grew more than 85 percent. At the end of 2015, it was the highest it had been since 1972, reaching 9.4 million barrels per day (MBD) (not including 3.3 MBD of natural gas liquids [NGLs]). Shale and tight oil accounted for 4.9 MBD in 2015, compared to 0.82 MBD in 2010. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that this source will continue to make up the majority of U.S. oil production increase into 2040. The total natural gas production also increased drastically, as the volume of shale gas produced in the United States shot from 2.1 billion cubic feet (BCF) in 2008 to 15.2 BCF in 2015.
This unprecedented growth happened in an environment in which a distinctive mix of policy measures was implemented by the Obama administration. Some of those measures have been arguably the most pro-oil and gas policies of the last several decades, such as putting an end to the ban on oil exports (initially opposed by the Obama administration) and providing a process for approval of LNG export terminals. Moreover, despite heavy environmental protection rhetoric, thousands of acres of public land were auctioned for oil and gas drilling, as the administration shifted to online auctions for O&G drilling on federal properties and 119 million acres of offshore drilling leases opened up in the Gulf of Mexico. The Obama administration also allowed drilling in the Arctic Ocean and did little to limit offshore oil and gas activity after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Lastly, the Obama administration did not adopt drilling rules that pre-empted the traditional oil and gas regulatory role of the states on non-federal lands.
Anna Mikulska and Michael Maher
The statements, opinions and data contained in the content published in Global Gas Perspectives are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s) of Natural Gas World.