A new report by the International Energy Agency indicating that U.S. fracking will make the United States the world's leading oil exporter by 2025 is music to the ears of the head of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
In an interview with 1200 WOAI news, Todd Staples says, for Americans who lived through the OPEC oil embargoes on the 1970s, and skyrocketing gas prices of the 2000s, this new report is the best news the Texas economy can have.
Staples says the American Petroleum Institute says the' energy independence' that U.S. Presidents since Richard Nixon have dreamed about, but was seen as a fantasy for decades, will become a reality in two short years.
"API indicates that by the year 2020 we could be self sufficient with North American supplying its own liquid fuel needs," Staples said. "It's really amazing."
The IEA forecast of the U.S. surpassing current leaders Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's leading oil exporter by 2025 cites the emerging dominance of fracking, which Staples says is a Texas innovation.
"With the combination of hydraulic fracuturing and horizontal drilling, we really are at a new point in energy production," he said.
The IEA says the growth in shale oil production between 2017 and 2025 will surpass Saudi Arabia's ramp up of oil production between 1969 and 1975 to become the fastest growth in any nation's oil output in world history.
The IEA also forecasts that U.S. production growth will drive additional oil demand, ending predictions of 'peak demand' which have been around since the end of the Great Recession.
It will also place a ceiling on global oil prices, but it will also retard the expected growth in renewable and alternative fuels.
Staples says the result in Texas will be an enormous boost to the state's economy, with the benefits being seen in all sectors.