Consider this fact: Three of every five barrels of crude oil produced in the U.S. are exported, either as crude oil or in the form of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel or other petroleum products. Sure, large volumes of crude and products are still being imported, but the net import number is dwindling toward zero — and if you count NGLs (ethane, propane, etc.) in the liquid fuels balance, the U.S. has been a net exporter since 2020. Yes, folks, exports are now calling the shots, and the role of exports is only going to become larger over the next few years. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss highlights from our recent Drill Down Report on crude oil and product exports and why they matter more now than ever.
Today we celebrate Juneteenth, which honors the end of slavery in the U.S. In observance of today’s holiday, we’ve given our analysts a break and are revisiting our May 24 blog on U.S. crude oil and refined product exports, which also serves as a preview of our latest Drill Down Report. If you didn’t read it then, this is your opportunity to see what you missed.
Before the Shale Revolution changed everything, exports of U.S.-sourced crude oil and petroleum products registered only as blips on the radar, a few hundred thousand barrels a day in total. But the sharp rise in U.S. oil production through the 2010s — and, importantly, the lifting of the ban on most crude exports in December 2015 — ushered in a new era. Lately, it’s become a regular thing to see 4 MMb/d or more of oil shipped out of marine terminals along the Gulf Coast, and refineries — especially those in Texas and Louisiana — are exporting a substantial portion of their output too.
As we say in our new Drill Down Report on crude oil and product exports, these shipments to foreign lands are now calling the shots — and having remarkable impacts on U.S. liquid fuel flow patterns, price differentials, infrastructure utilization and, to a great extent, the winners and losers in crude oil and product markets. And things are only going to get more intense as export economics increasingly determine which pipelines, refineries and port facilities capture production growth from the Permian and other basins.
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About the song
“I Need You” is a song written and sung by George Harrison on the Beatles’ fifth studio album, Help!, which is the soundtrack to the movie of the same name. The song was recorded at EMI Studios in London in February 1965, with George Martin producing. The songs “Ticket To Ride” and “Another Girl” were recorded at the same sessions. “I Need You” was said to have been written for Harrison’s future wife, Pattie Boyd. An interesting feature of the song is Harrison's electric guitar volume swells, supposedly done by John Lennon manually on Harrison’s guitar while he was playing. Harrison may have gotten the idea for this technique from old Jimmy Bryant records. (Bryant was an American country music guitarist.) Jeff Beck would later put it to good use on his Fender Esquire during his tenure playing guitar in The Yardbirds.
Personnel on the “I Need You” track were: George Harrison (electric and acoustic guitars, and lead vocals), John Lennon (snare drum and harmony vocals), Paul McCartney (bass and harmony vocals), and Ringo Starr (percussion, cowbell and acoustic rhythm guitar). The Help! LP was released in August 1965. It went to #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, and has been certified three-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The Beatles were a British rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With the lineup of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they would go on to become the biggest and most influential band in history. During their career together as a band from 1963 to 1970, the Beatles made 13 studio albums. John Lennon was killed in 1980, and George Harrison passed away in 2001. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr actively tour to this day.
