From Importer To Exporter

Emerging energy surplus with the advent of automation will facilitate America’s growing export, providing a pivotal shift in the global oil markets

- Arjavi Indraneesh

The world oil market is poised for a pivotal shift which will see the US emerge with an energy-surplus and this has implications for all major importing countries like India.

The major oil producer is only months away from full energy independence which could materialise by February-March next year. And going forward, it is estimated that in about 10 years, the total primary energy production will outpace primary energy demand by about 30 per cent.

According to leading independent energy consultancy Rystad Energy, the next monthly release from the Energy Information Agency (EIA) will reveal that the US has been self-sufficient in primary energy for a full 12-month period, from October 2018 through September 2019.

This is expected to further curtail the power of swing producers like Saudi Arabia to dictate to the crude oil market. India’s oil imports from the US have already outpaced growth in shipments from its traditional suppliers in West Asia.

India, the world’s thirdbiggest oil importer, bought about 1,84,000 oil barrels per day from the US, from November 2018 to May 2019, compared with about 40,000 bpd in the same period a year earlier. Over the same period, India took 48 per cent less oil from Iran. India was Iran’s secondbiggest oil client after China until the US ended the exemption from Iran oil sanctions in May this year.