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EIA Increases U.S. Gasoline Demand, Price Estimates for 2014

The Energy Information Administration increased its forecast for 2014 U.S. gasoline demand and retail prices. Gasoline consumption will average 8.78 million barrels a day this year, up 0.5 percent from the EIA’s December outlook of 8.74 million, the statistical arm of the Energy Department said today in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook . Demand in 2014 will be less than last year’s daily average of 8.79 million. Gasoline pump prices in 2014 will average $3.46 a gallon, 3 cents above last month’s estimate. Prices in 2013 averaged $3.51. Distillate demand, including diesel and heating oil, will be 3.88 million barrels a day this year, up from last month’s outlook of 3.87 million. Distillate consumption in 2013 averaged 3.83 million barrels a day. On-road diesel fuel will average $3.81 a gallon this year, higher than last month’s forecast of $3.77. Prices in 2013 averaged $3.92 a gallon. Households in the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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GOM Production and Other News

GOM Production and Other News Not much happening on the Peak Oil front these days. I checked out the BSEE Gulf of Mexico production. Data is in kb/d with the last data point September 2013. Average production from the GOM has been relatively flat for the last two and one half years at about 1.260 million barrels per day. The arrow marks April 2010, the month of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The big deepwater plays continue to decline. I guess they are bringing on other wells in order to keep production flat.   The above chart is combined liquids production of Atlantis, Thunder Horse, Tahiti and Blind Faith. The last data point is September 2013. I found this chart while browsing the net yesterday. It was published in the Albany Tribune  but they say it  is from the EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook . I failed to locate it there however. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Unforeseen U.S. Oil Boom Upends Markets as Drilling Spreads

The U.S. oil boom has put European refineries out of business and undercut West African crude suppliers. Now domestic drillers threaten to roil Asian markets and challenge producers in the Middle East and South America. Fifteen European refineries have closed in the past five years, with a 16th due to shut this year, the International Energy Agency said, as the U.S. went from depending on fuel from Europe to being a major exporter to the region. Nigeria, which used to send the equivalent of a dozen supertankers of crude a month to the U.S., now ships fewer than three, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And cheap oil from the Rocky Mountains, where output has grown 31 percent since 2011, will soon allow West Coast companies to cut back on imports of pricier grades from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela that they process for customers in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BP to Conoco Seek Alaskan Oil Comeback as Palin Tax Dies: Energy

BP Plc (BP/) and ConocoPhillips (COP) , looking to benefit from the repeal of an Alaska oil tax championed by Sarah Palin when she was governor, are chasing enough crude to end the state’s two-decade-long slump in production. Governor Sean Parnell signed a bill in May that wipes out a system backed by Palin tying oil producers’ taxes to the price of crude. The end of the “progressivity” formula has triggered investments from companies including BP and Conoco that may boost the state’s output by at least 90,000 barrels a day within four years and renew exploration in the nation’s second-largest oil reserve, estimated at 3.82 billion barrels. The increase would signal a resurgence for Alaska , which tied as the country’s largest oil supplier in the 1980s and has since fallen to fourth place. Lower taxes may further enhance the allure of drilling for Alaskan crude, which can […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Arctic Cold Cuts Fuel Supplies as Refineries to Pipelines Freeze

Record cold weather pummeled energy infrastructure across the U.S., prompting gas pipeline operators to reduce flows, fuel terminals to shut loading racks and refineries to scale back production. The cold snap pushed oil prices higher for a second straight day and boosted natural gas on the spot market yesterday to a 17-month high. Temperatures in several cities across the eastern half of the U.S. dropped to record lows, with New York’s Central Park hitting 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 16 Celsius) yesterday, breaking a mark for the date set in 1896, according to AccuWeather Inc. in State College , Pennsylvania. Flows on all natural gas pipelines into New England from further west and south were constrained yesterday, as were flows into New York, the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s statistical arm, said in a report . “The very cold temperatures widespread from Chicago east are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Oil Use Seen Flat in 2014, Up 0.4% in 2015, EIA Says — Update

U.S. oil demand will be little changed through 2015, but continued strong growth in domestic crude-oil output will shrink reliance on imports to its lowest level since 1970, government forecasters said Tuesday. The world’s biggest oil consumer will burn an estimated 18.88 million barrels of petroleum products in 2014, barely up from 18.87 million barrels a day in 2013, the Energy Information Administration said. Forecasters see only a slim 0.4% increase to 18.96 million barrels a day in 2015. Demand for gasoline–the most widely used petroleum product–is expected to ease, while demand for diesel fuel is seen inching higher. The flat demand picture will allow U.S. petroleum-product exports to continue to rise. As domestic producers pump more crude oil from shale-oil fields, U.S. reliance on oil imports will continue to drop. Net oil imports will drop to 4.53 million barrels a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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EIA: U.S. October Lower 48 Gas Output Up 2% on Year; Near Record

U.S. natural gas output in the Lower 48 states rose 0.9% in October to 74.6 billion cubic feet per day, fractionally below the high of August 2013, government data released Tuesday show. The rise of 0.65 bcf/day came against a September level that was revised up modestly to 73.95 bcf/day, the Energy Information Administration said. Output rose 2% from a year earlier and was just shy of the record level of 74.68 bcf/day for August 2013, which EIA revised up Tuesday, by 0.26% from last month’s report. Much of the rise came from the Marcellus shale area of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where many operators reported new wells had come on stream, the EIA said. The EIA said output from so-called other states, or those outside the traditional producing areas of Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming and the Gulf of Mexico, rose by […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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EIA: US Oil Output Growth To Slow In 2015; OPEC To Pump More

The pace of U.S. oil production growth will begin to slow in 2015, even as global demand continues to rise, allowing OPEC to pump more crude for the first time in three years, U.S. government forecasts showed on Tuesday. In its first projections for 2015, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said U.S. output will rise by 9 percent or 750,000 barrels per day next year to reach 9.3 million bpd, the highest in 43 years. That rate may seem heady but is less than the breakneck 1 million bpd growth seen last year and forecast for 2014, the result of the biggest oil boom in a generation as fracking and horizontal drilling technologies make millions of barrels in domestic on-shore oil reserves more accessible. The data arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, like many other analysts, has consistently underestimated the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Edges Higher in Asia; Brent-WTI Spread at $13.61/Bbl

Crude-oil futures bounced back in Asian trading hours Tuesday as investors monitored the U.S. oil supply situation and developments in the oil-producing regions of Iraq and Libya. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February traded at $93.67 a barrel at 0654 GMT, up $0.24 in the Globex electronic session. February Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.55 to $107.28 a barrel. This week’s data on U.S. oil stockpiles will commence with the American Petroleum Institute’s weekly statistical bulletin later Tuesday. The more closely-watched inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is due on Wednesday. The EIA will also publish its short-term energy outlook today. An extreme cold wave in the U.S. has raised concerns about oil production in North America. The Schork Group said concerns about oil output from Canada and the Bakken formation have seen […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple