Happy New Year everyone. I figured you'd appreciate the headline at the start of this year. It's in the news lately that the US might beat Saudi Arabia for oil exports. Sort of true but not really. They're not talking about just crude oil.
They are talk about "Petroleum" which includes " crude oil, hydrocarbon gas liquids, refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel, and biofuels including methanol and biodiesel."
Several amazing things have occurred in the last ten years. US oil production set a new record which I'm sure everyone knows. It reached 11.5 million bbls/day up from 5 million bbls per day from its low point in 2007.
The 4 largest oil producing State/areas, in million bbls/day are:
Texas 4.7
North Dakota 1.37
New Mexico 0.7
Gulf 1.74
The other important piece of info is the large growth in crude oil imports from Canada, my home country. Imports from Canada grew from 700,000 bbls/day in 1990 to 4 million bbls/day in 2018.
In fact, the US imports 10.1 million bbls/day, almost as much as it produces.
The 5 top sources of this crude oil are, in million bbls/day:
Canada 4.05
Saudi Arabia 0.96
Mexico 0.68
Venezuela 0.67
Iraq 0.60
You can see clearly that Canada is far and away your largest supplier of imported crude oil.
Thirdly, there has been a phenomenal growth in refining capacity in the USA, mostly along the Gulf Coast.
So, what is happening is a combination of several things. Most of the refining capacity is for heavy, high sulphur crude, and not light oil. This has resulted in a temporary glut of light crude that will exist until more new refining capacity is built. Currently, the US exports 2.3 million bbls/day of crude oil. However, it exports another 6 million bbls a day of refined products for a total of over 8 million bbls/day of "Petroleum" . This is the number they are comparing to Saudi Arabia.
The top five destinations for the petroleum are:
Mexico 18.8 %
Canada 12.3 %
Brazil 5.6 %
Japan 5.2 %
Netherlands 4.8 %
So, when the press talks about "Net US imports going to zero" they are saying that imports minus exports are going to 0. America still imports 10 million bbls/day.
All in all, it's a win-win situation for both the US and Canada. However due to lack of pipeline space, the Province of Alberta is going to shut in 325,000 bbls per day starting yesterday until we can clear out the glut. Then we'll resume that 4 million bbl/day number and are totally in favour of increasing those numbers while more refining capacity is built in the US.
By the way one last tidbit is that the US consumes 9.3 million bbls/day of gasoline and exports 1 million bbls/day of gasoline, up from 133,000 bbls/day in 2008.
Thanks for your kind attention. I hope this organizes some of the info on the amazing changes taking place.
They are talk about "Petroleum" which includes " crude oil, hydrocarbon gas liquids, refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel, and biofuels including methanol and biodiesel."
Several amazing things have occurred in the last ten years. US oil production set a new record which I'm sure everyone knows. It reached 11.5 million bbls/day up from 5 million bbls per day from its low point in 2007.
The 4 largest oil producing State/areas, in million bbls/day are:
Texas 4.7
North Dakota 1.37
New Mexico 0.7
Gulf 1.74
The other important piece of info is the large growth in crude oil imports from Canada, my home country. Imports from Canada grew from 700,000 bbls/day in 1990 to 4 million bbls/day in 2018.
In fact, the US imports 10.1 million bbls/day, almost as much as it produces.
The 5 top sources of this crude oil are, in million bbls/day:
Canada 4.05
Saudi Arabia 0.96
Mexico 0.68
Venezuela 0.67
Iraq 0.60
You can see clearly that Canada is far and away your largest supplier of imported crude oil.
Thirdly, there has been a phenomenal growth in refining capacity in the USA, mostly along the Gulf Coast.
So, what is happening is a combination of several things. Most of the refining capacity is for heavy, high sulphur crude, and not light oil. This has resulted in a temporary glut of light crude that will exist until more new refining capacity is built. Currently, the US exports 2.3 million bbls/day of crude oil. However, it exports another 6 million bbls a day of refined products for a total of over 8 million bbls/day of "Petroleum" . This is the number they are comparing to Saudi Arabia.
The top five destinations for the petroleum are:
Mexico 18.8 %
Canada 12.3 %
Brazil 5.6 %
Japan 5.2 %
Netherlands 4.8 %
So, when the press talks about "Net US imports going to zero" they are saying that imports minus exports are going to 0. America still imports 10 million bbls/day.
All in all, it's a win-win situation for both the US and Canada. However due to lack of pipeline space, the Province of Alberta is going to shut in 325,000 bbls per day starting yesterday until we can clear out the glut. Then we'll resume that 4 million bbl/day number and are totally in favour of increasing those numbers while more refining capacity is built in the US.
By the way one last tidbit is that the US consumes 9.3 million bbls/day of gasoline and exports 1 million bbls/day of gasoline, up from 133,000 bbls/day in 2008.
Thanks for your kind attention. I hope this organizes some of the info on the amazing changes taking place.
Last edited: