Exxon Op-Ed Article on American Energy Security Unbelievable
Either Exxon intentionally misleading public or leadership is unqualified

An op-ed article entitled, "A World of Energy: Americans get oil from many sources - and this makes supplies more secure" is clear indication that America's largest oil company is either intentionally trying to mislead the public or they have leadership that doesn't understand the fungible characteristics of the world oil market.

Here are a couple points in the article that give the reader the idea that our supplies (and ultimately the price at the pump) are secure:

1. "A truly global market in oil, with multiple suppliers around the world, helps to mitigate the impact on the United States if supplies are disrupted in any one country or region."

If supplies are disrupted, the primary impact will be a significant rise in oil prices. The number of countries that supply oil to U.S. consumers has absolutely no impact on prices as the commodity is fungible.

2. One paragraph states the importance of Middle East oil production but downplays that importance by stating, "But it is important to remember that many different oil producers are competing for access to American consumers."

The statement above may have been true in the early days of oil production where company's such as Standard Oil were looking to secure a base of consumers for their newly found 'rock oil.' Today oil company's produce as much as they can. The concern is not a lack of market to consume the oil produced. Rather the concern is usually declining production growth and difficulty in growing proved reserves. The more correct statement would be that, "American consumers compete for access to oil."

3. The subtitle states, "Americans get oil from many sources - and this makes supplies more secure."

Since oil is a fungible commodity the above statement is false. There is no correlation between an increased number of suppliers and increased "security." The U.S. had many sources of oil during the 1973 oil embargo and our oil supplies were anything but secure. According to the EIA, the U.S. imported 11.9% of product supplied from the Persian Gulf in 2005. This is significantly higher than the 4.9% imported in 1973.

In conclusion, since the executives at Exxon must understand the fungible nature of the worldwide oil markets it is obvious that the op-ed piece is simply propaganda designed to mislead an extremely uninformed American society. Future oil supplies (and prices) are anything but secure.