Just how quickly domestic US oil and gas plays can begin moving products to market remains a vital question following the Arab Spring, when political changes across the Middle East and North Africa put one third of the world’s oil and natural gas liquids at risk, prompting stockpile releases coordinated by the International Energy Agency.

Planning for new infrastructure spending and other capacity is extremely challenging given the volatile pricing that dependency on a limited number of foreign oil and natural gas sources entails, Frank Verrastro of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says in this video, an edited version of his presentation to the US Association for Energy Economics summit in Washington, DC earlier this year.

For comprehensive coverage of the USAEE conference and more videos featuring presentations from the summit as well as one-on-one interviews, see here.

The US has enormous natural gas and oil potential using new drilling techniques, Verrastro told the conference, with potentially more than 26 natural gas plays in the US and as many as 12-18 tight oil deposits similar to the high-profile Bakken shale in North Dakota.