The middle east has never accounted for dramatic shares of u. S. Import. From saudia time arabia. U. S. Has keeping the shipping line save is not import into its own country but the stability of the market. Handling is the market u. S. And iran tension . Guest it is quite remarkable. There has not been much of a reaction. There was a kneejerk reaction after the assassination of soleimani and another spike after the retaliation by iran. The kneejerk reaction at the market come down. This is the second time we saw this happen. Back in september of last year, saudis facility was targeted by iran. This was the largest facility. Saudi a major hit to supply. The market took it in stride the second time. Seismic events in the middle east, things that in the past would have caused prices to jump and created a shock, today, not much of a reaction. Host you said the u. S. Is concerned about the stability of the oil market and that is why the u. S. Gets involved with keeping the shipping lanes open out of the middle east. Guest historically, yes. What we are hearing from washington is very different soundbites. Maybe we dont need to worry u. S. Oil in the other producers in the region are getting concerned the u. S. Does not have their back in the event of a confrontation. Host lets show our viewers what area you are talking about. And saudi of hormuz arabia, uae, qatar. Look where they are located as they tried to export supply. According to foxbusiness, 21 of Global Supply pastor the straits each day. Talk about that. Guest this is a major for anynt, pathway supply. There is also gas the goes through the straight. It is a very significant source of energy for the world. U. S. Meaningful for the but significant for asian markets. Backyard. Asia is the the region gets its energy from the gulf. Korea, thechina, strait of hormuz are vital areas. Remarkable thee markets were so quiet. I think that is clearly complacently. Expectation that we have seen most of the escalation and the competition is deescalating. There is a sense of comfort. They also sense the u. S. Has enabled the market to absorb any disruption in the world. Both expectations could be wrong. Host you mentioned the countries getting their oil and gas from the middle east, which countries are they getting it from . The number one exporter is saudi arabia. Then you have experts from almost entirely to northeast asia. They were hit by sanctions twice under the Obama Administration until the negotiation agreement of the jcpoa. Then by the Trump Administration taking effect november of two years ago. With an escalation in may when washington removed the sanction waivers that allowed countries to keep importing at low levels. Arounday, experts from from iran have been a trickle. Host he said saudi arabia is the largest producer. 12 Million Barrels a day compared to 4. 7 million or iran. The ua around 4 million. Kuwait around 3 million. Qatar around 2 million. 2. 4t iran is now at million. Host because of what . The sanction . Guest correct. Host how does the United States oil and Gas Production factor into all of this . Where are we exporting to . Production has experienced the most romantic increase ever seen in history of the oil industry from a single country. The u. S. Is the number one producer of oil, gas, a love home. A of that stays at they pushed back imports. They are now heading to other markets. We have seen exports from the u. S. As well. Ranking in the millions of barrels a day. Months the u. S. Has net exports. Host net zero . Guest positive exports. More export than import. Host how dependent are we on foreign oil . Dependentremain because not all of the oil we produce domestically is registered for u. S. Refining capacity. U. S. Refineries process heavier grades. To optimize the refining system refiners have to has to export from u. S. Production and get a different quality. That makes the u. S. Independent on paper and that it is net positive. But it is very much connected to the global market. The other way in which the waistcoats connected is with prizes u. S. Is connected is with prices. What u. S. Consumers pay at the pump does not depend on the rise in production. It is set by the market in general. They its exposed are very much exposed to the risk. Host in which countries are we dependent on . Most imports come from canada. Canada is very close by. It is also an exporter of heavy oil which u. S. Refiners love. They have the deep conversion capacity to get value out of the barrels. Cheaper. Is typically u. S. Refiners have developed sophisticated capacities that allows them to take the barrels and turn them into highvalue light gasoline and diesel. That is where the imports are coming from. Then you have those from south america, mexico, used to take a lot from venezuela. That has dwindled in venezuela is also under sanctions. Then you have imports coming from the rest of the world. West africa, but those barrels have largely been displaced by domestic production. Host lets get viewers involved. If you have questions, comments about oil and Gas Production, Antoine Halff to take those questions. Democrats 202 7488000. Republicans 202 7488001. Independence 202 7488002. Brian is in michigan. Caller i served a lot of time in the gulf. What are the rules of engagement . You could not keep the straits open but you could turn it on its head and block oil from coming out. Leopold, i served with admiral nyquist and find it offensive we bring on the knew it wasen he the most hostile port on earth. Host tickets comments about bahrain. Guest one point that needs to be clarified the supply in the gulf is not so much about the closing of the straight but hypothetical vranian strike on facility iranian strikes on the region. The capacity to hit facilities in the region, the spike in saudi arabia nobody thought was possible. They demonstrated they were able to pierce a Saudi Air Defense and strike precisely the facility. It was not devastating to the capacity because it was superficial. They were able to restore capacity very rapidly and minimize the disruption to production. Iran to strike at the heart of the industry in the region and fist has been demonstrated. In sarasota,e florida. Democratic caller. Caller i have a question. I appreciate that President Trump is making our Country Energy selfsufficient. We have not built and expanded refineries in decades in the United States. We need to have more refineries so that we can process what we have. Also, what percentage of oil and gas does europe and asia rely upon the middle east for . It seems to me that they are the ones that need the energy from the middle east. Host we will take those questions. Guest you want me to answer that . Host yes, please. Guest ok, great. I think it is true that the u. S. Kept increasing under President Trump. I am not sure any president deserves credit for that. That started years ago. It is driven by the economy. By the private industry, more than political leadership. The increase is driven by industrial and economic processes more than political processes. Largest exporter in the world. Investments in refineries are very expensive. There have been a lot of investments to meet the standards of the organization which has set new benchmarks and new requirements. Refining industry is wellpositioned internationally to compete against refineries in other regions. There is not much room for additional investments. Go to benjamin in new jersey. Caller thank you for taking my call. Host good morning. Caller i think that here in lost track ofve what is behind this iranian issue. Issue oft is less the the conduct of iran then it is our conduct than it is our conduct in the last for years. Go back to when British Petroleum controlled oil. And were taking the oil iran received little revenue from it. Pleaded that we need more revenue from our own and oil. British petroleum went to to helpon and appealed them get rid of mohammed most mosad. It is amazing how imperialistic they were. They got rid of him. They armed him with everything they needed to the people under control. Some of it was brutal. What they did, they wanted to bring the shaw to america. That started the strife. , under reagan president reagan ended up doing what iran just did. They shot down an iranian airliner. The system had not been thoroughly developed. Where we are with his whole issue, and this is what our friends do not realize, that party, the Republican Party has been more so behind the collapse of this country. You start with reagan and look at the deficits we have built up. Ll of the money and then you jump from there to 2008. , we are involved in that particular period. One is a democrat, he balanced the budget. Iran has been the trigger. A has been the issue behind slow collapse of the economy in america. Host ok. Do you have any thoughts on that . Guest i am not sure about the creeping collapse. S interestingi is that you bring a Historical Perspective that is not front of mind in the u. S. But very much front of mind in iran. Of mohammed is something that is remembered and a source of continued grievance and iran. It is important to keep that in mind. In the last few days, they have tried to get rid of the memory of this event and erase the imagination of soli money soleimani. I dont think that has been sufficient. We have seen massive demonstrations against the. Egime, despite its effort host michael, republican. Caller thank you for having me. Host go ahead. Is ar i think that there bigger, underlying problem, noting the call of iran did just start. It started a long time ago in 1979. Israel is pushing americas buttons to start a war with iran. They also are pushing the buttons to get us fighting against israel. Our ally in the middle east has been forcing our Foreign Policy in the middle east to overthrow regimes. And fight with these countries in the middle east. We can get there oil. Their oil. We can control that oil like we control saudi arabias oil. Host do we need irans oil . Guest the market can use some ofof it. I think everybody would benefit if it was economically secure in a democratic regime. As israeli enticements on at u. S. , israel probably is greater risk after soleimanis assassination than it was before. Has a proxy force with which you can threaten israel. Iran has said they would not strike any u. S. Facilities in iraq. Chance for retaliation is significant. It is very much there. Host we will go to trent in alabama. Republican. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller i had a concern on synthetic oils. I was looking at cspan today at oil prices. Natural oil, we have synthetics. I was wondering what happens in the environment, which is over natural oil . Is there anything that goes on in the epa with the environment . Certain things that happen with synthetics comparator compared to burning natural oil. My dad burned synthetic in toyotas. They were talking about how they had been shipping oil to asia. If they are shipping oil to asia, why are they burning synthetics . Host all right. Antoine halff . Guest there have been has been research. Synthetic oil was popular in its time. That is not where most research is directed. There is more research in electric vehicles. Synthetic oil has taken a the u. S. N synthetics were attractive when we thought we were running out of oil. We probably have more oil than we can burn. , perhaps forogen transportation and shipping are the focus today. We will go to josh, who is in iowa. Independent caller. Caller good morning. I have a question about the production of oil in north dakota. Flightfect does the disruption that happened with chino thing we have going on with iran you know the thing we have going on with iran, what affect does that have with the production in North Carolina north coda. Dakota. . Have a secon i have a second question. Host go ahead. Price any kind of increase is good for u. S. Producers. In the aftermath of the attacks, both the soleimani assassination , there has been hedging. They have had future profits by buying into the futures market. Ist being said, north dakota not where most of the production is taking place. Base has beenfic in texas and new mexico. You arer thing is, if looking at the shortterm in north dakota, beginning through the winter beginning in the winter, it goes down seasonably because of the weather conditions. Host your second question, josh . Caller this one is easy. What price at what price per barrel of oil does the american production, i am most concerned with north dakota, at what price does the american production rampup . I think it is around 60 a barrel now. On theit depends individual producers. For some producers, it might be 60. For some, it might be 70. It may be 30 in some cases. Generally speaking, there has been a shift, a change in the u. S. Faculty industry as well as the markets. The industry was trying to increase production at any cost, even if it had to be in the red. That was the name of the game. Over the last 1. 5 years, wall street investors, the industry has changed. They are demanding that produces demonstrate profitability and cash flow. Increase their earnings and profits. Are seeing a shift in the nature of the industry. Private owners that were driving the production in the beginning are being pushed out of the market. Chevron and shell are increasing their footprint and our more conservative in their approach in some cases. Even if we see a price increase, we are likely to see slower reaction than we have seen in the past. The amount of time it would take for the price hike to translate into production increase will be significant. Production goes down, we cannot count on u. S. Production from texas or new mexico to ramp up production to make for supply loss. Host we will go to mike in crystal city, florida. Democratic caller. Caller i heard you say that china and japan and all of those countries are dependent on the saudi oil. Why arent they down there protecting that . Why do we have american soldiers in saudi arabia, protecting their oil . That is a question they are probably asking themselves as well. Iny have increasing interest raising their military profile in the persian gulf. There is a sense of discomfort with the idea that the u. S. Might not be as active or reliable in terms of maintaining security in the gulf as it was in the past. Some of the statements that President Trump has made have been a source of uneasiness. Increasingly, they have raised their profile in the goal. They are not making up for a drop in the u. S. The questions you are asking are some of the questions they are asking themselves as well. A senioroine halff is scholar at colombia university. You can follow their announcer 1 coming up tonight, a look at the impeachment and the situation in i run. Iran. And cspan coverage continues with Pete Buttigieg in las vegas. That is followed by katie porter in iowa. Later cspan follows along with tom steyer for a day on the campaign trail in new hampshire. Journalists look at President Trumps impeachment, the situation with iran and the upcoming 2020 elections. International university hosted this as part of its conference on the state of the world. So we are going to jump right in on this panel. With m