The United States has become a net exporter of fuel for the first time in more than 60 years. That simple fact could drive oil-company profits for at least the next decade.
It's also another sign of dramatic shifts in the energy industry, with consumption declining in the United States and rising in emerging economies.
The United States exported 98 million barrels more of fuel than it imported in the first 10 months of 2011. Just a few years ago, in 2005, the country imported almost 900 million barrels of fuel.
"It looks like a trend that could stay in place for the rest of the decade," Dave Ernsberger, global director of oil at Platts, told The Wall Street Journal. "The conventional wisdom is that U.S. is this giant black hole sucking in energy from around the world. This changes that dynamic."
The United States is still the world's largest importer of crude oil, however - although even U.S. oil imports have dropped by 10% since 2006.
Actually, that's one of the reasons the United States has become a net exporter of fuel. New sources of domestic oil from the shale fields in North Dakota and Texas, as well as Canada's Athabasca oil sands, have made more crude available to U.S. refining companies.
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