http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/11/20121113134836285404.html

The United States will become the world's largest oil producer by around 2020, temporarily overtaking Saudi Arabia, as new exploration technologies help find more resources, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has revealed.

In its World Energy Outlook released on Monday, the energy watchdog also predicted that greater oil and natural gas production - thanks partly to a boom in shale gas output - as well as more efficient use of energy will allow the US - to become nearly self-sufficient around 2035.

The US currently imports some 20 per cent of its energy needs.

This would be "a dramatic reversal of the trend seen in most other energy-importing countries," the Paris-based IEA said in its report. "

"Taking all new developments and policies into account, the world is still failing to put the global energy system onto a more sustainable path "

- International Energy Agency

"Energy developments in the United States are profound and their effect will be felt well beyond North America - and the energy sector."

Rebounding US oil and gas production is "steadily changing the role of North America in global energy trade," the IEA said.

Shifting exports

For example, oil exports out of the Mideast will increasingly go to Asia as the US becomes more self-sufficient. That will increase the global focus on the security of strategic routes that bring Middle East oil to Asian markets.

Tensions between Iran and Western powers have raised concerns that oil exports from the Persian Gulf could be blocked in a potential conflict over Tehran's alleged plan to develop nuclear weapons.

The IEA added that global trends in the energy markets will be influenced by some countries' retreat from nuclear power, the fast spread of wind and solar technologies and a rise in unconventional gas production.

The agency concluded that despite the rising use of low carbon energy sources, huge subsidies will keep fossil fuels "dominant in the global energy mix."

"Taking all new developments and policies into account, the world is still failing to put the global energy system onto a more sustainable path," the IEA said.

Global energy needs are forecast to increase by a third by 2035, with 60 per cent of the additional demand coming from China, India and the Middle East

Doesn't really matter if energy prices don't go down...we'll see about that one.

This isn't the first I have heard of this. I hope it turns out to be true. But I have my doubts..

That means jobs. That isn't going to refine itself.

We're printing 85 billion a month on top of everything else printed since 2008. Prices are never going down.

Sure we have the resources.  Too bad we also have the traitors in charge that won't allow us to accesss them.

And we don't even need to become fully self-sufficient in order to disentangle ourselves from the Middle East.  Just self-sufficient enough that energy from Canada, the UK, Mexico, Norway, etc. can fill the rest of the gap.

But what about the endangered red-tipped cotton tailed tree fungus? I mean, it's only habitat is where the oil is.

LMAO!