Platts: US shale gas, oil boom should be viewed in proportion: IEA's Birol
The US shale gas and oil boom of recent years is "very profound, but sometimes taken out of proportion," International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol said at the Flame conference in Amsterdam Tuesday.
Birol said that of the projected reduction in US oil imports from Tuesday to 2035, while 35% was expected to be the result of changes in oil supply, with more oil produced at home, and 8% from oil switching to gas, some 57% would be the result of demand-side policies.
"US oil imports are set to plummet due to increasing oil supplies and recently adopted policies to improve efficiency of cars and trucks," he said.
Birol added that even as the US became a major oil producer, it was wrong to downplay the continued role of the Middle East.