Tag: EIA

According to EIA, in 2018 Puerto Rico’s liquefied natural gas imports were pretty close to 2016 annual levels, according to the recently released LNG Annual Report published by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy. Its imports were severely affected by Hurricane Maria in September 2017.

The Sumas trading point on the Canada-Washington border averaged $161.33 per million British thermal units on its natural gas spot prices on March 1. This is the highest daily spot price ever recorded by Natural Gas Intelligence anywhere in the United States in at least five years. The price peak was due to regional supply constraints and unseasonably cold temperatures.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that the share of high sulphur residual fuel oil consumed as bunker in the US will fall from 58% in 2019 to 3% in 2020, and then rebounds to 24% in 2022. The Administration highlights that the regulations will affect petroleum supply, demand, and trade flows on a more long-term basis.

Although US coal consumption has generally declined since its 2008 peak, EIA expects that US coal exports reached 116 million short tons (MMst) in 2018, the highest level in five years, according to data collected by the US Census Bureau.

In the last two months of 2018, the US Gulf Coast exported more crude oil than it imported, with monthly net trade of crude oil in the US Gulf Coast region falling from a high in early 2007 of 6.6 million barrels per day of net imports to 0.4 million b/d of net exports in December 2018, according to EIA.

According to EIA, petroleum refineries in the US Gulf Coast rely more and more on merchant suppliers, instead of their own production, to provide the hydrogen used to reduce the sulphur content of fuel. Namely, with the demand for distillate fuel oil increasing, and sulphur content regulations becoming stricter, refineries need to use more hydrogen.

According to EIA US natural gas production experienced an increase by 10.0 billion cubic feet per day in 2018, noting an 11% rise in comparison to 2017. The development reported was the largest annual increase in production on record, establishing a record high for a second year in a row.

EIA estimates that between 2014 and 2017 natural gas processing capacity and processing throughput increased by around 5%, even as the number of individual plants reduced. Natural gas processing plant utilization rates stayed still at 66% from 2014 to 2017, but numerous states saw significant changes, largely reflecting changes in natural gas production across regions.

As EIA informs, despite relatively lower supply from various major crude oil-producing countries, including Saudi Arabia, Libya, Venezuela, and Canada, global liquid fuels production will surpass global consumption through 2020. In addition, the reduction in oil production from OPEC countries and Canada are probably contributing to rising prices of medium and heavy crude oils compared with light crude oils.

EIA launched its February  2019 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), according to which several recent trends in US biofuels markets will continue in 2020. In the outlook the production of fuel ethanol and net imports of biomass-based diesel remains the same, whereas net exports of fuel ethanol experience a decrease.