To better understand the recent news about the precipitous drop in crude prices, it is helpful to review the global picture of world oil production and consumption. (click on images to enlarge.) In 2018, the US produced 18% of total world oil production, the most of any country. If Saudi…
Happy New Year. The decade now ending was the decade of the Permian Basin. Its rise in production changed the US to a net oil exporter. Permian gas production, a byproduct of the search for oil, drove down gas prices and resulted in a frenzied effort to build pipelines to…
I ran across an excellent article, “A Primer on the Geopolitics of Oil,” by Anand Toprani, assistant professor of Strategy & Policy at the U.S. Naval War College. He has a book in the works, Oil and the Great Powers: Britain and Germany, 1914-1945. Oil has been a commodity different…
Morningstar has published a report analyzing oil pipeline and refining capacities along the Texas Gulf Coast – “Pipeline Plans Suggest Tsunami of Crude Exports – Midstream companies looking to double Gulf Coast shipments.” pipeline-plans-suggest-tsunami-of-crude-exports-FINAL If all planned pipelines are built and run to capacity, new lines “would carry as much…
I love these energy flow diagrams from the Energy Information Administration. Below is the one for total energy sources and uses. EIA has others for crude oil, natural gas, coal and electricity. Click to enlarge.Here’s the flow chart for natural gas. Note how much US gas comes from shale gas…
An article in the Harvard Business Review, Oil’s Boom-and-Bust Cycle May Be Over. Here’s Why, provides an excellent overview of how the global oil market has been changed fundamentally by development of shale oil resources. Excerpts: U.S. shale producers “now represent half of U.S. oil production, up from a mere 10%…
I recently ran across an article on Investing.com, “The Problematic Truth About U.S. Shale Oil Production,” by Dr. Ellen Wald, who hosts a podcast about global energy. Dr. Wald reports on her recent podcast discussion with Art Berman, a geology consultant and frequent speaker and author. It reminded me that…
I have often received calls from clients who receive unsolicited offers to buy their minerals. In the past, mineral owners have generally ignored these offers, reminded of their grandmother’s admonition to “never sell your minerals.” That has changed. The buying and selling of minerals has now become common. Investment monies…
From OilPrice.com: Last year, the value of U.S. energy exports to Mexico was US$20.2 billion, while the value of U.S. energy imports from Mexico was only US$8.7 billion, according to the EIA. On the other hand, Mexico’s oil and gas output is 40 percent off its peak levels, an S&P…
Here’s another great graph explaining US Energy production and consumption, from the Energy Information Administration. It’s called an Energy Flow Diagram. Numbers are in quadrillion BTU’s. Click on image to enlarge: Consider: We still import 21.72 QBTU of petroleum, about 22% of our total consumption – about what we consume…