Autonomous Vehicle Consultant

Production is falling at United States oil reservoirs in the lower 48 states, Alaska, and the Gulf of Mexico as shown in the following figures.

Figure 1. U.S. Onshore Oil Production Peaked in 1971

Figure 2. Alaskan Oil Production Peaked in 1988

Figure 3. U.S. Gulf of Mexico Oil Production Peaked in 2003

United States crude oil imports, therefore, are increasing and are now 60 percent of oil consumption in contrast to several decades ago when the United States was a major oil exporter.

This situation is clearly a matter of national security. The U.S. Department of Energy website has a section, “National Security” with the following topics:

• Cyber Security Protection
• Managing Operations Security
• Preventing the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction

There is no section that explicitly acknowledges the fact that U.S. reservoir production is declining.  Blatantly missing is a comprehensive, coordinated plan and roadmap related to energy conservation, efficiency, and alternative energy development for transition to a sustainable way of life.

Business Development Issues

Tackling declining U.S. oil production is partly a matter of public awareness of the problem and the absence of government leadership. The public is only dimly mindful of the problem when gas pump prices increase. At present, there is no technology that has the scale and affordability to replace gasoline from crude oil, although R&D work is supporting extended range electric vehicles, fuel cells, and cellulosic ethanol.

Even though internal combustion engines can be retrofitted to operate on compressed natural gas, there is apparently no substantial effort to ramp up the use of such fuel in spite of the large reservoir of U.S. natural gas. Scale up of any future technology must be accompanied by manufacturing, distribution, sales, installation, and maintenance in the path toward commercialization