The U.S. oil and gas renaissance has placed heavy new demands on the U.S. logistics system. Between 2009 and 2013, annual U.S. crude production on private land grew by 61 percent (Humphries 2014). The burgeoning output of light tight oil (LTO) was the engine that powered this rise in output. Most of the LTO growth centers on a long roughly oval cluster of tight oil basins scattered from south and west Texas north all the way to Alberta. The oil sands of Alberta, which produce bitumen, have been a second major source of added North American oil output.

As supplies from these new areas have surged, those from older sources have ebbed. Drilling restrictions in California and Alaska have caused both of those states’ oil output to fall. The Macondo oil spill led to the long Gulf of Mexico drilling moratorium and much more restrictive federal regulations on offshore drilling. In response, from 2009 to 2013, annual U.S. offshore oil output actually fell by 9 percent (Humphries 2014).

Yet the mid-continent surge was big enough to make up for these declines and to still decrease total imports. Ten years ago the United States imported about 60 percent of its oil; today, it imports only around 30 percent—of which, moreover, around 40 percent comes from Canada.

This changed pattern in the geography of oil production has, within a mere five years, largely reshaped the entire oil logistics system. As LTO and Canadian oil undercut the prices of overseas imports, some refineries on the east and west coasts could stay in business only by forging new transport links to the emerging mid-continent oil supplies. As refineries switch sources of crude, ocean tankers and oil pipelines have lost market share—although pipelines still deliver about 60 percent of U.S. crude oil tonnage. Crude-by-rail racked up very large percentage gains in market share—albeit from an extremely low base. Both truck and barge modes also scored significant gains in tonnage delivered (US Department of Energy 2014).

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