President Barack Obama will call later Wednesday for US oil imports to be cut by one third within the next 10 years, senior White House officials said.
To achieve that goal, Obama will call for increased use of natural gas, higher fuel economy standards for automobiles, construction of four commercial-scale, advanced biofuel refineries within two years, and more production in areas already available to oil and gas companies, said the officials, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity.
The United States in 2010 imported 9.163 million b/d of crude and nearly 2.6 million b/d of refined products, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, the statistics arm of the Department of Energy.
OPEC countries supplied an average of 4.532 million b/d of crude, more than 49% of the total crude volume imported. Crude imports from Persian Gulf countries -- including some OPEC members -- totaled 1.691 million b/d, more than 18% of the crude total, the EIA data shows.
Neighboring Canada and Mexico were top crude suppliers with 1.972 million b/d and 1.14 million b/d respectively. OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia was the third biggest crude supplier with an average 1.08 million b/d, followed by Nigeria and Venezuela with 986,000 b/d and 912,000 b/d respectively.
US crude production last year averaged 5.512 million b/d.
International crude prices climbed above $100/barrel early this year as flames of unrest spread across North Africa and the Middle East, with North Sea Brent having traded close to $120/b in the latter part of February as the unrest spread to Libya and led foreign oil companies to pull staff out and suspend oil production, which had previously been running at close to 1.6 million b/d.
Earlier this month, Libya's top oil official, Shokri Ghanem, said production had dropped below 400,000 b/d.
North Sea Brent crude has traded between $114.50/b and $115.16/b and US light crude between $104.13/b and $104.78/b so far Wednesday.
POLITICS OF THE MOMENT
"We see this movie every couple of years: gas prices go up, politicians offer a bunch of solutions, oftentimes the solutions are designed for the politics of the moment and not for solving a long-term problem," one official said. "If we're going to avoid repeating the same thing in a couple of years, we need to be serious and work together."
A second official noted that an Interior Department report released Tuesday found that companies leased only 2.4 million acres out of 37 million acres offered, and estimated that companies hold undeveloped leases containing billions of barrels of oil.
"That's why part of our plan is to give new and better incentives that promote rapid and responsible development of these resources," the official said, without detailing what those incentives would be.
To make use of extensive US natural gas reserves, the president will propose incentives for using natural gas in cars, trucks and vehicle fleets, including city buses, the officials said.
Obama will also call for greater fuel economy standards, which would go into effect beginning in 2017, and standards for heavy duty trucks, which will be finalized this summer.
Finally, Obama will reiterate his call for a "Clean Energy Standard," which would include fossil fuels with lower greenhouse gas emissions, like natural gas and coal plans with carbon sequestration systems, as well as nuclear power and zero-emission renewable sources, such as solar and wind, the officials said.
In his State of the Union address in January, Obama set a goal of 80% of US power from "clean" sources by 2035.
To make that possible, the officials said, Obama proposed spending increases for clean energy research programs in his fiscal 2012 budget.
Republicans have sought to cut Department of Energy funding in their spending proposals for the remainder of fiscal 2011 and for 2012.
