Oil and natural gas touch our lives in countless ways every day. Together, they supply 65 percent of our nation’s energy. They fuel our cars, heat our homes and cook our food.

But did you know that oil and natural gas also help generate the electricity that powers our daily lives? Or that crude oil supplies the building blocks for everything from dent-resistant car fenders to soft drink bottles to camping equipment?

Explore this section to learn more about oil and natural gas, how they are produced and how they become the products you count on. You’ll also find useful tips on how to conserve energy and use oil and natural gas products in ways that protect you, your family and our environment.

The Truth About Oil and Gasoline: An API Primer
America is in a global struggle for energy security and many of us lack a full understanding of the oil and natural gas industry. API has assembled a primer to encourage a constructive public policy debate on meeting the growing energy needs of consumers and industry.

Sections include discussions of global energy demand, price increases, what consumers are paying at the pump, earnings, refinery expansions, the environment and energy security.

 The Truth About Oil and Gasoline: An API Primer
Date: September 5, 2008 

To see an accompanying video that helps explain topics presented in the Primer, go to to the Energy Tomorrow website to view.

It is important to understand how the energy world has changed.  Forty years ago, the world oil reserves were largely the domain of the investor-owned, international oil companies (IOC), based principally in the United States.  Most people today assume international oil companies are little changes from decades ago, still siting astride the bulk of these world oil reserves.  That is no longer the case.  Today, world oil reserves are 80 percent owned by the national oil companies of foreign governments, many formed during the past 30 years.  Only six percent of worldwide oil reserves are now held by investor-owned oil companies.

 The Facts About Oil Industry Mergers, Market Power and Fuel Prices: An API Primer
Size: 1.15 MB | Date: August 13, 2008 | License: Free

Investment and Other Uses of Cash Flow by the Oil Industry
Today's oil and natural gas industry earnings are invested in new technology, new production and environment and product quality improvements to meet tomorrow's energy needs. This new Ernst & Young study shows the five major oil companies had $712 billion of new investment between 1992 and 2007, compared to net income of $705 billion during the same period. The industry overall, which includes 41 of the largest U.S. oil and natural gas companies, had new investments of $1.17 trillion over the same period, compared to net income of $974 billion and cash flows of $1.74 trillion. High oil and gas prices in recent years increased oil and natural gas companies’ cash flows from operations and net income, which facilitated record levels of investment spending. Download the complete report below (Published July 2008) .

 View/Download
Size: 202 KB | Date: July 15, 2008 | License: Free

The Economic Contributions to the U.S. National and State Economies by the Oil and Natural Gas Industry
This report quantifies the effects of the oil and natural gas industry’s employment and purchases of goods and services on the U.S. national and state economies in terms of jobs, value-added, and labor income.

 Full Report
Size: 310 KB | Date January 15, 2007 | License: Free

What Goes Down Must Come Up: A Review of the Factors Behind Increasing Gasoline Prices, 1999-2006
U.S. gasoline prices nearly tripled between January 1999 and July 2006. Consumers, policymakers, and the media have questioned why prices rose so quickly and why they remain so high. In this paper, Professor Carol Dahl, an independent expert in international energy markets reviews the available data and evaluates the various forces that have been suggested as possible causes for these price trends.

  Executive Summary
Size: 1.2 MB | Date: April 2007 | License: Free

  Full Report
Size: 1.5 MB | Date: Updated July 2007 | License: Free

Understanding Today's Crude Oil and Product Markets (Oil Primer)
American consumers, and policy makers, are anxious for answers to explain why fuel bills are getting more expensive. They wonder what  has caused the price of crude to push past $70 per barrel and how that crude price affects the price of gasoline and other refined products. In a project commissioned by API, Lexecon. a unit of business consultancy FTI, has put together a primer called “Understanding Today’s  Crude Oil and Products Markets.”


Download/view
Size: 1.7 MB | Date: May 2006 | License: Free

 Download/view
Size: 1.8 MB | Date: January 2007 | License: Free

Emerging Energy Technologies Research
The U.S. oil and natural gas industry reinvested $98 billion during the past five and a half years on emerging energy technologies in North America, according to a new report. The analysis, from the Institute for Energy Research and the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas, notes that investment represented 73% of the estimated $135 billion spent by all U.S. companies and the federal government from 2000 through 2005.

 Download/view
Size: 2.85 MB | Date: December 2003 | License: Free