World Oil launches oil import tariff survey; early results show clear trends

Responding to the collapse in global oil prices, World Oil on Tuesday, March 17, launched a survey of its U.S. readers, to gauge the appetite for substantial U.S. federal government action to counteract the predatory oil dumping actions of Russia and Saudi Arabia. The categories of readership include operators, equipment/service firms, drilling contractors and consultants.

In this survey, readers were asked to state whether they favor strong action by U.S. officials, and if so, would they support some form of tariff, duty or “import fee” on imported oil. And if they support a fee, they were asked to indicate whether they want it tied to a floor price. The goal of imposing such a tax on imported oil obviously is to stabilize the price of crude, as well as give some breathing room to U.S. producers, and, in turn, protect the country’s oil production capacity.

So far, there has been strong participation in the survey by World Oil’s readers. We expect the total to grow significantly, while we keep the survey open another day or two. And while we are not ready to share actual numbers, we can state that roughly three-quarters of respondents expect very low oil prices to last at least three months. Additionally, a solid three-fifths of readers favor the U.S. government taking very concrete steps to blunt the oil price dumping by Russia and Saudi Arabia.

More than half of respondents favor the U.S. federal response taking the form of a tariff, duty or import fee. Another 13% to 15% are unsure, while the remaining third do not favor such action, at this time.

We will reveal more results over the next few days, as results are more complete.