CNBC: “Trump Can’t ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ His Way Out of This Iran-Inspired Oil Crisis: Experts”
RFF Fellow Brian C. Prest comments on whether more domestic drilling can make up for global oil supply constraints.
“Brian Prest, an economist and fellow at Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan research group that focuses on natural resources, said domestically drilling the volume of oil necessary to offset the Strait of Hormuz shutdown is likely unfeasible. That’s despite sky-high US production for the last several years.
‘You would need to see huge increases in US production to actually manifest as meaningful percentages of total global supply,’ Prest said. “The United States has seen a huge run-up in the past 15 years in oil production, but that’s exactly what it is; it took 15 years.’
‘I can’t imagine that you are going to see huge surges from the United States alone that are going to balance the market over the course of a war that they’re hoping is going to last a few weeks,’ Prest said. The war reaches its two-week mark on Saturday.
