Word: bbl
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...everyone is quite so gloomy, but the current brisk run-up in oil prices serves as a reminder that the U.S. energy supply is increasingly under the influence of outside forces. During March commodities traders bid the price of oil above the $20-a-bbl. threshold for the first time in 17 months. Last week the futures price of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude, reached $20.15 a bbl., up some 50% since last October. The rally largely reflects an unexpectedly successful campaign by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, along with several non-OPEC countries...
While the price of petroleum is still a long way from its $35-a-bbl. peak in 1981, the U.S. is sliding back to a level of dependence on foreign sources not seen since the oil-shock days of the 1970s. January petroleum imports averaged 8.1 million bbl. a day, up almost 21% from a year ago and surpassing domestic production (8 million bbl.) for the first time in more than a decade. The import surge has hampered efforts to shrink the U.S. trade deficit, and rising prices have aggravated inflationary pressure...
...year ago and a far cry from the 4,500 functioning rigs in late 1981. Exxon's spending on domestic drilling dropped nearly two- thirds from 1985 to 1987, to $333 million. Oil experts estimate that prices will have to stabilize at no less than $25 a bbl. to encourage a drilling resurgence in the U.S. Many American oil companies have boosted their exploration overseas, where finding oil typically costs $1.50 to $2 less per bbl. than...
...short run, the U.S. would not experience dire shortages. A Commerce Department study found that in the event of war, the country's demand for fuel could be met by domestic production and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Created 13 years ago, the reserve is now up to 515 million bbl., equivalent to about three months' total consumption, stored in salt caverns along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana...
...eerily, it struck last week, on the very day that the 3,100 residents of Valdez had planned to commemorate the 25th anniversary of another disaster: the great Alaska earthquake of 1964, which sent a towering tidal wave smashing into Valdez, killing 131 people. After taking on 1.2 million bbl. of crude at the Valdez terminal, the southern end of the 800-mile Trans- Alaska Pipeline, the 987-ft. tanker Exxon Valdez headed out through Prince William Sound. Maneuvering to avoid icebergs, the tanker rammed into an ; underwater shoal called Bligh Reef. The vessel's side split open and thick...