With ABC Oil currently the most profitable corporation in the country,

E-mail from Marketing Manager to Research Staff

With ABC Oil currently the most profitable corporation in the country, followed closely by XYZ Oil, how valid is the image of the United States as dependent on foreign oil? What proportion of American energy needs can be met through domestic production? How do current production levels compare withprevious years? What do we know about trends in demand? And if we must import, how much of that need can be answered by Canada? Positioning the company as an American energy company would be the most positive stance but only if we can support it by showing that our product comes from if not U.S. wells at least North American sources.

E-mail from Researcher #1 to Marketing Manager

Domestic production is healthy, but while it may be true that U.S.-based companies now produce more than the United States imports, we certainly don’t produce as much as we consume, as you can see in the following graph.

E-mail from Researcher #2 to Marketing Manager

ABC Oil’s headquarters may be in Texas, but it sources crude from 21 countries, including both relatively stable nations like Kazakhstan and nations with periodic violent crises like Chad. XYZ Oil’s practices are similar. We’re a global society now, and an “American” company just means where the company pays taxes, not necessarily where it produces. The United States consumes more than 18 million barrels of crude per day, but our local fields produce less than half that. The difference has to come from fields somewhere else, no matter what company owns them. This isn’t local farming where you eat what’s grown close to home. We may be able to focus attention on our ties to American plants and American workers, but the product is an international mix.