In many ways, life has never been better for the U.S. oil and gas industries. Production is up, thanks to new fracking technology. Profits are high. There’s little chance Congress will cap carbon emissions anytime soon. What more could they ask for?
An oil right outside Watford City, North Dakota, U.S. (Daniel Acker - BLOOMBERG)Quite a bit, it turns out. On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute released a report full of recommendations to the Republican and Democratic committees that are crafting their party platforms this summer. Basically, this is Big Oil’s wish list. It includes everything from opening up more federal lands for drilling to avoiding strict new federal rules on natural-gas fracking. And API has also included a slew of charts that help give a better sense for what’s driving the oil and gas industry.
First up is this graph showing where the current boom in oil and natural gas production is taking place. Mostly, it’s occurring on private lands — in, for instance, the oil-rich Bakken shale formation that spans North Dakota and Montana. By contrast, oil and gas production has flatlined and even dropped in areas that are supervised by the federal government: