Talk:Petroleum in the United States

Traffic stats
Traffic stats show 21 hits last month without an article. Given the importance and interest of this topic this article should exist. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 22:23, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree. Fortunately the article now exists. Thanks to all contributors. Keep those edits coming. --Teratornis (talk) 18:27, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

split off: Natural gas in the US
It is difficult to separate the exploration and production of natural gas, but once oil and gas are separated at the wellhead, they go their separate ways. Rather than make this article too long, I'd like to split off a separate article: "Natural gas in the United States". Any thoughts? Plazak (talk) 00:58, 5 September 2015 (UTC)


 * No one objected, so I split off Natural gas in the United States. Plazak (talk) 03:35, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

Beware of "and other liquids"
Every so often, someone cites data from the US EIA for "Production of petroleum and other liquids" to show that the US is now #1 in oil production. Unfortunately, the "other liquids" includes biofuels such as ethanol which are not forms of petroleum, and do not belong in this article. That the EIA presents such misleading information without explaining it more prominently on their website is a disgrace, but all we can do is to be aware that the EIA category "petroleum and other liquids" includes significant volumes of non-petroleum products, and so is not a meaningful comparison of petroleum production. Thanks. Plazak (talk) 03:20, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Misleading Section Naming
The article has a section entitled "Exploration" (with no content other than a link). "Exploration" is a euphemism chosen by the oil industry because it polls much better than "drilling." In the oil business, both words mean "drilling," but the industry uses the more popular word when it is drilling where they hope there's oil. "Drilling" is used for a drill site under which they already know there is oil because they've got one or production wells in place. An wells that make up an oil field cause a great deal of ground and (sometimes) water contamination. When an oil field is exhausted and shut down, the owning company must conduct a comprehensive toxic site cleanup effort these are expensive and an take close to a decade. Even drilling an "exploratory well" is harmful to the surrounding environment, and requires extensive environmental cleanup if it is abandoned.

While the two words are usually described as commonly used, I believe that by using the extant language, Wikipedia is buying into the use of industry-friendly euphemisms to disguise the truth, and we ought not do that.

I suggest we rename the section to something more forthright, such as Drilling to Search for Oil or Exploratory Drilling. In addition, there should be a short introductory paragraph explaining the industry meanings and uses of the words. This should be brief and factual, without pro-drilling or pro-environmental editorializing. I'm ready to do these small changes, but thought it best to seek the thoughts of other editors. Also, if there's someone who manages this page with whom I should consult, I should be only too happy to get a name.

/Bruce/ &#91;aka Slasher&#93; (talk) 14:35, 17 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Your basic premise that Exploration = Drilling is in error, as exploration includes other activities such as seismic surveys. And your comment on cleanup of oil fields is off-point here, as it falls under production, not exploration. But if you care to add sourced content on oil field cleanup, or of any other environmental problem with the industry, that would be a useful addition to the article. Plazak (talk) 16:07, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

Barrels per day?
Why does eia.gov say production is nearly 20 million per day and the article says only over 13 million per day?

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/imports-and-exports.php — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:908:192:FBE0:9F0:FC22:C2FE:175E (talk) 06:18, 28 February 2021 (UTC)