Other areas covered by Consulting Resources Corporation include those involving natural resources and energy. These can be broken down into the following key sectors: mining (which includes metals, industrial minerals, and coal), crude petroleum production and refining (which includes natural gas), and electricity production and sales.

The U.S. mining industry includes the mining of ores used to produce a variety of metals, the mining of industrial minerals such as boron, phosphate rock, potash, salt, and others, as well as the mining of coal. Overall, the mining industry has made slow, steady progress over the past decade, and this growth will continue at a rate between one and three percent in the coming decade.

With roughly 20 million barrels of petroleum products being consumed in the United States each day, it is clear that the oil and refining businesses are immense. Yet with twice as much crude oil being produced in the Middle East as in all of North America, it is also clear how unbalanced the global crude oil situation has become. The dependence of the United States on foreign oil has once again become a prime issue since the unrest in the Middle East has re-ignited fears that an oil embargo could cripple the economy. Now, with President Bush having promised funding for companies developing fuel cell technology, the path to alternate, cleaner sources of energy is clearer than ever.

Approximately one quarter of the world’s electricity generation capacity is in the United States, making the U.S. the largest electricity producer in the world. Traditionally characterized by large, vertically integrated organizations, deregulation in recent years has lead, in many places, to lower power prices and a variety of smaller corporate structures specializing in only a limited segment of the overall power business. Yet even more profound changes can be expected for the electric power industry in the future, as oil companies slowly evolve to focus more on the broadly-defined energy business, as their traditional petroleum-based markets mature.

For more information regarding how we can help satisfy your consulting needs in these and other industries covered by Consulting Resources, please contact us with your questions.