Speaking in Washington with the Financial Times earlier this week, T. Boone Pickens said that consumers of oil and gas products around the world owe U.S. exploration and production companies a debt of gratitude for lifting American production to 9.4 million barrels per day.
“If you did not have the U.S. oil today … do you know where you’d be? You’d be at $150 to $200 [per barrel] oil. The United States is the one that saved the world from a very, very high oil price. Do they get credit for it? Hell no. Give ‘em credit for it.”
Pickens also pointed out that responsibility rests with U.S. producers, not the Saudi government, to decrease the glut of oil that is pushing down the price of oil globally.
“That’s the resources of Saudi, and they can do what they want to with their resources … We’ll adjust to it. That’s just life. Why do we expect the Saudis to cut [production] for us? We’re the ones that overproduced,” Pickens said.
As the Times noted, “U.S. production reflects the decisions of individual companies that take no instructions from Washington.” Meanwhile, state-owned oil companies such as Saudi Aramco are government entities that adhere to national policy dictates.
“The U.S. has got to balance its market instead of the Saudis,” Pickens said.
Learn more about Pickens’ insights about America’s energy renaissance.