As experts contemplate the future of energy in the United States, much of the attention gets paid to alternative energy sources, like solar and wind. Recent developments, however, give fans of nuclear energy hope that new nuclear fusion plants may also play an important role.

In the meantime, the U.S. continues to rely primarily on fossil fuels and it has done so to amazing effect. According to a recent Industry Week article by Stephen Gold, “over the past two decades the United States has evolved from a degree of foreign-energy dependency that threatened our economy and national security to the premier energy producer in the world.”

While this is great news for citizens who feel the pain at the gas pump, it’s also important “for U.S.-based manufacturers, who consume roughly one-third of this country’s available energy resources each year.”

The American experience with energy resources has been an interesting ride over the course of the country’s history. As Gold points out, “[s]ince the start of this country’s industrial revolution in the mid-19th century, Americans took their vast energy resources for granted.”

That all changed in the 1970s, though, thanks to the OPEC oil embargo. The U.S. government’s failure to develop a strategic energy resources plan coupled with “a moratorium on building new nuclear reactors after 1979’s partial meltdown at Three Mile Island” led to an ever-increasing reliance on foreign energy suppliers.

The deficit hit its peak in 2006: “U.S. energy consumption outpaced production by 28.7 quadrillion BTUs, and imports outpaced exports by 29.9 quadrillion BTUs.” Something happened in the early 2000s that would turn the tide, though. Oil and gas experts call it the “shale gale.”

According to Gold, “[t]he shale gale…was tied to the hydraulic fracking revolution, made possible by new horizontal drilling and mapping technologies. By 2016, more than half of all American oil output resulted from fracking; by 2018 the United States became the world’s top crude oil producer; and by 2019 the U.S. was a net total energy exporter.”

Today, things are better than ever. As of last year, the U.S. “produced 13.4 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil, twice as much as a decade ago. This easily tops Saudi Arabia’s 10.8 million b/d and Russia’s 10.7 million b/d.”

Moreover, “[t]he U.S. is also the world’s largest producer of natural gas, a title it’s held since surpassing Russia in 2011. In fact, we produce almost all the natural gas we consume and are the globe’s largest exporter of LNG. Moreover, 40% of our nation’s electricity needs are met through natural gas power plants, twice as much as through coal-fired power plants.”

As our country continues to explore other sources of energy, it’s important to remember that our current level of energy independence is the result of oil and gas, and these resources will continue to fuel our country for many years to come.

That also means there will be no shortage of oil and gas jobs for the foreseeable future. In fact, many oil and gas companies still struggle to hire the skilled workers they desperately need. Moving forward, companies will need to continue to hire skilled workers while also upskilling current workers.

So how do oil and gas companies improve their focus on technical skills? For new and current employees, the answer is technical training. Oil and gas workers need both fundamental knowledge and hands-on technical skills with real industrial equipment they’ll encounter on the job. Be sure to check out Bayport Technical’s wide variety of hands-on oil and gas training systems to take your oil and gas training to the next level!