The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is telling us that not only did the oil production renaissance decrease our reliance on imported oil, but it also was successful in stabilizing world oil prices and making energy cheaper for Americans. Oil prices in 2013 were around the same average annual levels of the previous 2 years. Further new pipeline and rail infrastructure helped to alleviate crude oil bottlenecks in the United States, pushing West Texas Intermediate oil prices in 2013 to almost their 2008 level and keeping Brent oil prices in toe as the EIA’s graph below indicates. West Texas Intermediate oil prices averaged $98 per barrel in 2013, 4 percent higher than 2012 prices and North Sea Brent prices averages $109 per barrel in 2013, 3 percent lower than its 2012 level. As the United States needs less sweet light crude from abroad, more of that crude is available to other markets, lowering the global price.[1]
