The American Oil Boom and African Security

National security and energy policy experts have long called
on the United States to diversify its sources of oil imports. These experts
correctly asserted that in a time of limited domestic production and tension in
the Middle East, ensuring U.S. energy security necessitated a variety of
suppliers.

The
African continent was often cited as one such potential source of oil. Academics,
journalists and politicians predicted that the United States would acquire even
larger amounts of oil from African producers, including large exporters like
Nigeria and smaller petro-states such as Equatorial Guinea. For a time at
least, they were right. Starting in 2002, the United States drastically
increased its imports from established producers in Africa, most notably Nigeria,
Angola
and Algeria
(The 5th, 6th and 9th largest suppliers of oil to the United States,
respectively), and created relationships with new producers like Chad.
 As the United States looked to places
outside the Middle East for its oil, several African nations seemed poised to
become important suppliers.

All of that started to change in 2010. The international
energy landscape began to shift dramatically as companies unlocked tight oil
reserves in the United States through the use of hydraulic fracturing and
horizontal drilling technologies. For
the first time in decades, the United States has seen production increase, to
6.4 million barrels per day in 2012 (up 779,000 barrels from 2011).  And the U.S. Energy Information Administration
(EIA) predicts that the United States will increase crude output by another
900,000 barrels a day in 2013, largely from tight oil production.

read more

www.cnas.org