Oil Prices

Sailing the oceans in search of treasure is something of a fantasy for a lot of people.

Just imagine it, the gentle rocking of the boat...

Learning the language of the sea...

Manning the big, wooden ship's wheel...

The eventual end goal: finding the buried treasure on the deserted island that you located using the ratty, ancient map with a giant black "X" marking the spot.

Usually this type of imagining involves a hook for a hand, eyepatches, peg legs, and other such pirate accessories.

But it's the buried treasure that's central to this dream.

Unfortunately, in real life, "X" marking the spot is just that... a dream.

There is, however, unmarked buried treasure.

About 13 years ago, I was at a meeting of energy experts close to Dominion Energy's liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Cove Point, Md.

At the meeting, it was unanimously concluded that at least 15% of U.S. natural gas demand would be met by LNG imports within the next decade.

In those days, nearly 70% of the U.S crude demand was projected to be met by imports.

At that time, American oil production was not even 7 million barrels a day, with well over 60% of total volume coming from "stripper wells" – each providing less than 10 barrels daily, but many more barrels of water than oil.

Back then, we were aware of the potential lurking in shale, tight oil, and gas...

But nobody could have foreseen (myself included) the largesse LNG would provide.