There is an oil boom going on in North America, which is expected to create thousands of jobs, SandRidge EnergyChairman and CEO Tom Ward told CNBC Thursday.
CNBC.com
“There’s been a renaissance in production in not only Canada but the United States just recently,” he said. “In the next three years, we believe our industry will be creating over 100,000 jobs just in Kansas and Oklahoma.”
Oil produced in those states goes Cushing, Okla. — where the proposed southern leg of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline would begin.
Thursday, President Obamaannounced that he wants federal agencies to expedite the southern segment, which would run 485 miles from Cushing to the refineries in Texas. TransCanadahad recently said it would move forward with this section of its pipeline after Obama rejected its initial application to have the pipeline run from Canada into the U.S. The Canadian pipeline and energy company has also said it plans to reapply for the Presidential Permit needed to in order to run Keystone across the border.
For SandRidge’s Tom Ward, that pipeline is important. It allows the United States to use oil produced in North America, and not overseas, he said. Plus, if it isn’t transported to the U.S., it will go elsewhere.
“The Canadian oil has to go someplace,” he said. “That oil, if it doesn’t come to Cushing, will go to Asia or some other place. And we might as well be using it here.”
The southern leg of the pipeline, in the meantime, will help transport backlogged oil to the south. And according to Ward, there is more oil to come. Oil production in the U.S. has increased in the last three years from 5 million barrels a day to nearly 6 million barrels a day, he said.
“That’s just the beginning,” he said. “Our company alone grew our production last year by 64 percent.”
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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