RBN’s Daily Energy Blog and Insights sharpen your energy IQ through fundamentals-based analysis that makes sense of North America’s energy market dynamics.
Crude prices have been at three-year lows this week as the world appears to be awash with supplies. With OPEC apparently not willing to defend higher prices by reducing their output, attention has turned to the likely impact on U.S. shale production of a lower price regime.
The Edmonton region in Alberta is home to a growing crude gathering hub that brings in bitumen crude from the oil sands region 250 miles to the north.
There’s good reason to be bullish about a skyrocketing trajectory for US methanol production. Natural gas prices are relatively low and likely to stay so; domestic demand for methanol continues to increase; and overseas demand—especially in China—is rising even faster.
Since the start of 2013 Corpus Christi marine terminal facilities have increased crude and condensate storage by 10 MMBbl and throughput capacity from 225 Mb/d to nearly 1 MMb/d.
There is an onslaught of surplus natural gas supply bearing down on the Henry Hub in South Louisiana. More than 60 natural gas pipeline projects are in the process of reversing the continent's gas flows to move gas out of the Northeast, and much of that production will be moved to the Gulf
Japan is the world’s leading importer of liquefied natural gas, and its dependence on LNG has only increased since the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, which led to the shutdown of Japan’s 48 nuclear units.
Canadian production of diluent range light hydrocarbon materials such as natural gasoline and condensate are not currently meeting demand from the oil sands region. Diluent is used to reduce the viscosity of heavy Canadian crude so that it can flow to market in pipelines.
It seems increasingly likely that Hawaii’s electric utility and gas utility will be leading the Aloha State through a multi-year transition from an oil-based economy to one founded largely on liquefied natural gas—most of it sourced from Western Canada.
Crude Oil TradeView provides up-to-date data and insights into the behavior of differentials for 33 crude assessments across North America. Each week, it also walks you through the reasoning of why differentials widen, narrow, flip (premium vs. discount), or blow out.
Refineries located close to booming Eagle Ford shale production have nameplate capacity to process over 900 Mb/d of crude but can only consume 375 Mb/d of local output today.
If 2012 was “the year of the tank car” in North Dakota then 2014 could turn out to be the year when crude by rail economics turned sour for producers. New pipelines are coming online to deliver increased volumes of crude to the Gulf Coast with more projects on the drawing board.
