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US Since the beginning of the 20th century conflict over the control of oil supplies has been a constant feature of International affairs. The US as well with the rest of the world faces similar problems. In the US the conflicts derive from essential features. Firstly, oll Is of vital Importance to the economy and also to the military power of the country. Secondly Is Its Irregular geographic distribution with In the country. The US is 8th positions of countries that hold the most reserves with 30. 4 billion of barrels, compared to Saudi Arabia who is in the 1st position and holds reserves of 261. illion barrels. However, the US is the second country after Saudi Arabia who produces the most barrels per day. According to the chart the US should not produce as much due to the lack of reserves. unfortunately, the conflict with oil has drastically been increasing. The conflicts vary from nature to environmental, policy disputes, and also conflict with the rising price of oil. As the times passes by oil becomes more scares and therefore, more valuable, and the severity of such conflicts is more likely to increase. It Is Inevitable the fact that oll Is an essential part of Word’s economy, ower and development.
As time passes we have become more dependent on such resource. It Is a maln fuel that runs almost every machine from transportations to the manufacturing of products. However, 011 exploitation has damaged our environment significantly. Over the past 100 years, oil has been exploited in offshore oil-rigs. This has led to the damage of marine species, especially in the case of oil spilling. An oil spill is the release of petroleum into the ocean because of the deficient knowledge of the operation drilling rigs, transportation, and oil pumping.
Every year, millions of allons oil has been spilled into the ocean. For example the US’s biggest oil spill took place on April 20, 2010, as a consequence there was an estimated 200,000 gallons spilled of oil per day due to explosion and sinking of the Deep-water Horizon oil rig. Crude oil contains many difference kinds of substances which are extremely noxious to marine animals and ecosystem. When birds’ feather or mammals’ fur are absorbed by 011, they can be more vulnerable and Intoxicated easily. 011 also Impairs the fishes’ moving and survival ablllty when the water environment Is changed.
According tudies at least one percent oil-absorbed birds and marine mammals survive such incident even if aid is provided to treat the problem. Furthermore oil spill affects to the natural linkage as well as food chain. This means it affects not only marine species but also other habitats – such as coral reefs – and further. The higher and organisms is on the food chain, the diseases or health harms can be spread out even to human. Contamination of soil caused by oil spill is an alarming problem that is concerning as well. These hydrocarbons in oil adversely influence on the sprout and rowth of plants in soils.
According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, when soil is contaminated by oil, the amount of oxygen in soll Is reduced leading to Impeding native plant growth. Therefore, contamination of soll can do significant damage to not only the nutrient absorption and growth of plants, but also the crop yields and harvests. The mainly chemical components of oll are Oxygen, Hydrogen and Carbon: these elements have variety molecular forms and of those chemical components for specific using, crude oil contains some impurities uch as nitrogen, sulfur and other metals.
Therefore, when we burn petroleum, it can produce emission and byproducts, which cause environmental problem and harm our health, such as Carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. In details, Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain, which causes to increase acidity levels in lakes and rivers and seas leading to killing aquatic life. Moreover, Carbon dioxide is a primary reason causing global warming which affects the habitat of humans and other species.
There are several fundaments in US policies over oil reserves. In 2003, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil averaged about $31 per barrel. 10 years later, today, the price has risen to over $90 per barrel. As long as energy prices remain high, the United States government can hardly be absolved from the blame. In early stage of the past 10 years, the US energy policy trended conservative. From the Iraq war to the new Africa Command, NATO’s and US military existence in Middle East and North Africa has continued to grow.
In order to protect energy security, the US government tends to ensure the international energy supply y providing military assistance to critical oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia. However, sometimes, the external cost for military attempts to protect energy security is more expensive than energy prices. For instance, in order to secure energy supply of the Middle East, the huge military and economic aid that United States spends made average cost of crude oil rise to about three times of the crude oil market price.
Furthermore, the conservative energy policy which focuses on the external supply makes Oil price even more unstable. Because of recent expansion in developing ountries and rising of Russian energy power, global energy market became more complex and highly variable. In such complex era, the US conservative energy which based on military presence can hardly guarantee the international energy supply remains absolutely stable. Moreover, such the uncertainty of energy supply created more speculating on world oil markets, and this is the mainly causes of high prices of energy market.
The plan to resolve energy problems in the United States has been proposed for nearly half of a century. In 1973, US had faced to the turbulent Middle East situation, President Richard Nixon pointed out that the United States will confront energy crisis. He asked to reduce the dependence of United State on foreign Oil, and through energy conservation and new technology development, finally US achieved energy independence. In fact, seeking energy independent can be seen as an opportunity rather than a problematic. In the past decade, the United States has experienced in technology revolution.
The revolution is not only about renewable energy, but also about the exploitation of oil and gas. In 2011, the United States once gain became a net exporter of petroleum products since 1949. After ten years, the United States could overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia becomes the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. The flourish of new sources of energy, such as shale gas and shale oil, has the impact that far beyond people’s imagination. By seeking energy Independence in the United States, not only is the energy security problem solved, a brand-new era in economy will be opened.
Finally, there is the problem with the high price of oil. The expensive of oil price can be explained in financial aspect. From the Information provided by the OPEC, the member of OPEC countries added a total of is actually having a sufficient oil supply. The supply of oil is stable and do not support to the increasing of oil price. However, the oil price is still high and keeps rising nowadays. This situation conveys that the law of supply and demand cannot explain the high price of oil. Speculation of oil is mainly reasons behind that keeping the oil price in irrational high level.
Speculation is when people buying crude oil that is not for current consumption, but for future use. Speculators earn a great profit by urchasing futures. In the future, there are two parties will contact to buy or sell a commodity at a predetermined future date and price. They usually bet on the price of a commodity that will reach in the future. In this case, the commodity is oil. They are not investing the actual, physical oil but gambling the oil price whether it will increase or decrease. Such behavior harms the oil market’s normal function, bringing impact to the oil price.
While speculator purchase a large amount of oil futures with a price that highly greater than the normal price, producer will trends to reserve the oil ecause they notice that the oil can be sold in a rather good price in the future which can bring more profit. Thus, as the supply in the oil market decrease due to the reservation of oil buys the producers, oil price is inflated in an irrational way. In conclusion, the conflicts with oil exploitations continue to increase. Unfortunately, whether changes are made to preserve nature the environment will never go back to its initial stage.