Less than half of the industry respondents believe the United States has gained an energy security advantage, a survey from Deloitte found.
Deloitte published its annual survey of industry sentiment from an energy conference in Houston. It found the number of industry respondents who said the United States can achieve self-sufficiency in oil within the next decade rose 11 percentage points in just a few short years.
Rising from 26 percent in 2012, the number still remains below 50 percent, the survey results show.
According to Deloitte, U.S. oil production has increased nearly 60 percent since 2009 to 8.6 million barrels per day. Production is on track to reach 9.5 million bpd per day by 2016, close to the peak reached in the early 1970s that followed advances in Alaska and Texas.
"With results like this, it is no wonder that 80 percent of industry professionals believe that the U.S.'s energy situation is better than it was five years ago," Deloitte said in its Tuesday report.
Nevertheless, the survey data show less than half of the industry respondents feel the United States has gained a level of energy security as a result of the shale boom.
While growing substantially, survey data show 40 percent of the respondents believe the U.S. has achieved energy security.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a weekly report published Thursday the United States imported 2.5 million barrels of oil per day from Canada for the week ending Nov 7. Combined imports from Middle East producers were 1.6 million bpd for the week.
