What if US becomes world’s top oil producer by 2020?

The US can shed its long-standing dependence on oil from Saudi Arabia and become the world’s biggest oil producer 2020, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said November 12. The world’s foremost authority in energy based this on the result of new technology allowing the exploitation of new sources of unconventional fossil fuels–oil and gas, including shale gas and shale oil–would be a redrawing of the international energy map. In the next decade, the US could be self-sufficient in all forms of energy and 90% of Middle Eastern oil could be headed for China, IEA estimates. This will have huge implications for geopolitics and for climate change as opting for cheaper fossil fuels in place of environmentally sustainable sources of energy such as wind and sun will undermine hopes of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.


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