US to become world’s largest oil exporter

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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.
smile.gif
 
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I'm trying to follow the numbers:

11.5 million bpd of production
+10.1 imports
- 8.3 of exports (mostly refined products)

= 13.3 million bpd of consumption
- 9.3 gasoline consumption

Leaves 4.0 for diesel, fuel oil, jet fuel, bunker fuel, asphalt, butane, propane etc. I didn't expect such a heavy bias towards gasoline yield.

Says to me that refining brings a lot of jobs and money into the US. Kind of like importing aluminum and exporting air planes.

I wonder if the day will come where our refineries adapt to our light oil and we decide the current size of strategic oil reserve isn't necessary?
 
Originally Posted by Donald
I would like to see the US leave more in the ground than export.

Why is that? There is plenty of oil in the ground and I doubt oil will be the dominant energy source in 50-100 years.
 
Originally Posted by hatt
Originally Posted by Donald
I would like to see the US leave more in the ground than export.

Why is that? There is plenty of oil in the ground and I doubt oil will be the dominant energy source in 50-100 years.
^ This ^
 
Originally Posted by Burt
I'm trying to follow the numbers:

11.5 million bpd of production
+10.1 imports
- 8.3 of exports (mostly refined products)

= 13.3 million bpd of consumption
- 9.3 gasoline consumption

Leaves 4.0 for diesel, fuel oil, jet fuel, bunker fuel, asphalt, butane, propane etc. I didn't expect such a heavy bias towards gasoline yield.

Says to me that refining brings a lot of jobs and money into the US. Kind of like importing aluminum and exporting air planes.

I wonder if the day will come where our refineries adapt to our light oil and we decide the current size of strategic oil reserve isn't necessary?



Hi Burt. Yes, you organized the numbers as I had meant. I think my error occurred in an EIA report that said the US consumes 9.3 million bbls of gasoline. I believe now they meant transportation fuels that include gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Good call.
 
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Great article. Thanks for posting Snagglefoot. All that refining in the Gulf States. Go look at the Refining Plants at night. We need Oil and I like gas, so I understand it. There is a price to be paid and I'm not referring to $$$.
 
Originally Posted by hatt
Originally Posted by Donald
I would like to see the US leave more in the ground than export.

Why is that? There is plenty of oil in the ground and I doubt oil will be the dominant energy source in 50-100 years.

Oil in the ground is a war chest of self sufficiency if world supplies channels are disrupted or exhausted.

Scott
 
Why can't "light crude" just be added in at a certain percentage of the feedstock (say....20%?) in the US refineries ?

The refineries can't adapt to that much of a change?
 
I am all for the drilling. I don't follow the leave it in the ground idea myself. I like gas in my vehicle and I like it at a lower price than higher. I would like to see more refineries built. All new jobs. I would do public transportation more but I live out west where that really isn't an option. It is just talked about and I hear talk of studying public transportation where I live. What that really means to me is I will probably be dead or so old I and unable to even use public transportation. So I like gas in my cars and I am glad we as a nation are drilling. We may or may not eventually get public transportation here but like I said talking about it doesn't allow me to use it. Let's keep drilling until we actually have another solution.
 
Originally Posted by hatt
Originally Posted by Donald
I would like to see the US leave more in the ground than export.

Why is that? There is plenty of oil in the ground and I doubt oil will be the dominant energy source in 50-100 years.


I believe the scientific numbers are that we need to leave 1/3 of the fossil fuel in the ground. Else climate change will be worse than it already is. And its pretty bad according to the UN reports.
 
Originally Posted by Linctex
Why can't "light crude" just be added in at a certain percentage of the feedstock (say....20%?) in the US refineries ?

The refineries can't adapt to that much of a change?


It can be added and probably is to minor extent, but the capacity of the refinery will be underutilized because it is "geared" for the yield from heavy oil.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
I would like to see the US leave more in the ground than export.


By the US outnumbering the bad people in the sandbox, it lessens their domination and influence and power. It's a good thing for the US to be the largest exporter. Private companies are exploring, extracting and shipping it, versus a government.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
Originally Posted by hatt
Originally Posted by Donald
I would like to see the US leave more in the ground than export.

Why is that? There is plenty of oil in the ground and I doubt oil will be the dominant energy source in 50-100 years.


I believe the scientific numbers are that we need to leave 1/3 of the fossil fuel in the ground. Else climate change will be worse than it already is. And its pretty bad according to the UN reports.


LOL.
 
Global Climate Change and Global Warming are politically charged topics so please stick to the numbers and avoid any political comments.
 
The US is leaving PLENTY of oil in the ground. We've just made more and more discoveries in areas where there is access, as well as finding new techniques to get more from existing wells and fields. You don't hear anyone moaning anymore about tapping into some of the large, off limits areas of Alaska these days, do you?
 
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