Tag: EIA

EIA forecasts Brent crude oil spot prices, which averaged $79 per barrel in September, to average $81/b in Q4 2018, before falling to an average of $75/b in 2019. However, the effects of US withdrawal from JCPOA, re-imposition of sanctions on Iran, and potential response from OPEC pose uncertainty.

During the past decade, the US trade gap for energy products has narrowed, as from 2003 to 2007, the value of energy imports was about 10 times greater than the value of exports, US EIA informed. By 2017, imports were only about 1.5 times greater than exports, according to data from the US Census Bureau.

According to EIA’s 2014 Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS), the capability of the US manufacturing sector to switch the fuels it uses has declined in recent decades. Among the most commonly substitutable fuels used in US manufacturing, the amount that could be switched in less than 30 days dropped from 24%

The rupture of Enbridge’s BC natural gas pipeline near Prince George, British Columbia, on 9 October 2018, continues to affect natural gas supply, electricity generation, and petroleum refining in the US Pacific Northwest, according to EIA. The pipeline rupture forced some refineries in Washington to cut production.

As domestic production continues to increase, the average density of crude oil that the US produces continues to become lighter. The average API gravity (a measure of a crude oil’s density where higher numbers mean lower density) of US crude oil increased in 2017 and through the first half of 2018, EIA reports.

In the first half of 2018, US natural gas supply and demand grew significantly compared to the first half of 2017. Natural gas consumption and exports averaged 93.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) during the first half of 2018, or 12% greater than during the first half of 2017, according to EIA.

From January through June 2018, net natural gas exports from the United States averaged 0.87 Bcf/d, more than double the average daily net exports during all of 2017 (0.34 Bcf/d), according to EIA. US has continued to export more natural gas than it imports for five of the first six months in 2018.

Crude oil surpassed hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL), becoming the largest US petroleum export with 1.8 million barrels per day (b/d) of exports in the first half of 2018, according to EIA. US crude oil exports increased by 787,000 b/d, or almost 80%, from the first half of 2017 to the first half of 2018.

OPEC received about $567 billion in net oil export revenues in 2017, an increase of 29% from revenues in 2016. Increases in both crude oil prices and in net OPEC oil exports increased revenues in 2017, and EIA expects that revenues will continue to increase in 2018, according to EIA’s August Short-Term Energy Outlook.

The US likely surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia, becoming the world’s largest crude oil producer earlier this year, based on preliminary estimates by EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook. US crude oil production, particularly from light sweet crude oil grades, has rapidly increased since 2011.