U.S. makes strides in reducing dependence on Middle Eastern oil

America will halve its reliance on Middle Eastern oil by the end of this decade and could end it completely by 2035 as a result of declining demand and the rapid growth of new petroleum sources in the Western Hemisphere, energy analysts now anticipate. The Wall Street Journal reports the shift in supply and demand is due to technological advances in oil extraction techniques, such as hydraulic fracturing—or fracking—which has only become commercially viable during the last decade in U.S. fields previously deemed not worth tampering with. By 2020, nearly half of the crude oil America consumes will be produced at home, and 82% will come from the western side of the Atlantic Ocean, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. By 2035, oil shipments from the Middle East to North America “could almost be nonexistent,” the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries recently predicted, partly because more efficient car engines and a growing supply of renewable fuel will help curb demand. The change achieves a long-sought goal of U.S. policy-making: to draw more oil from nearby, stable sources and less from a volatile region half a world away. But U.S. officials stress that the Middle East will remain important to American foreign policy partly because of the region’s continuing influence on global oil prices. Read the full story here.