(NGI's Daily Gas Price Index - 8/22/12) - With heavy ramifications for Midcontinent energy infrastructure and eventual exports, the United States will find itself with oversupplies of both domestically produced liquids and crude oil from now through 2017, market consultant/analyst Rusty Braziel of RBN Energy LLC told a session of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) annual meeting in Denver earlier this month (Aug. 13-16).
All of this has significant pricing and operational implications for the U.S. energy markets as the nation greatly steps up its production of liquid hydrocarbons, said Braziel, noting that the greater production of shales promises technical and operational implications because of almost exclusively light sweet (lower sulfur content) crude oil and super-light crude.
Changes in gravity and sulfur readings on the supplies over time will influence investments in refineries; surpluses in light, sweet crude; and finally the U.S. energy export mix, Braziel said. Emphasizing the steady increase in U.S. liquid hydrocarbon production, Braziel said the industry is "in for big changes in how it does business," noting that what he considers the biggest change will be "significantly more exports of U.S. energy products. He is predicting that "will be a good thing for the markets, for the industry and for the economy."
