China-Bound Loadings Rise Amid Declining U.S. Gulf Coast Crude Oil Exports

U.S. crude oil loadings decreased by 211 Mb/d week-on-week to 3.7 MMb/d, bringing the four-week moving average (dashed red line in chart below) to just under 3.7 MMb/d — its lowest since the week ending June 21. The number of tankers loading crude oil for export across U.S.

DOE Buys ~2.5 MMbbl to Refill Bryan Mound SPR Site for Q1 2025; Seeks More

The U.S. Department of Energy has purchased 2.475 MMbbl of sour crude for its Bryan Mound SPR site in Texas for the first time since it began refilling national reserves after a massive emergency sale to offset oil price rallies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

EPIC Crude Pipeline Achieves New Monthly Utilization Record

EPIC Crude Pipeline (light green line on map below) has achieved its highest-ever monthly throughput. According to flow data recently published by the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), EPIC Crude transported 607 Mb/d in April, surpassing its 600 Mb/d nameplate capacity.

U.S. Crude Exports Down – Blame the Brent-WTI Differential

Average weekly exports of U.S.

US Rig Count Posts Decline Despite Solid Gains In Anadarko & Permian

US oil and gas rig count declined slightly for the week ending August 23 despite solid gains in several basins, dropping one rig vs. a week ago and declining to 585 according to Baker Hughes.

Iraq and Kazakhstan to Curtail More Oil Output After Overproducing in January-July

Iraq and Kazakhstan have submitted updated plans to compensate for producing over their crude oil quotas during January-July of 2024, the OPEC cartel said in a statement.

Canadian Drilling – Oil Rig Count Pushes Higher, Gas Rigs Headed Nowhere

For the week ending August 23, Baker Hughes reported that the Western Canadian gas-directed drilling rig count was unchanged at 66 (blue line in left hand chart below) and eight less than a year ago.

Chevron Halts Crude Shipments From Empire Terminal to Bonefish Pipeline

Chevron has issued a notice to shippers that its Empire terminal in Louisiana won’t accept crude nominated for delivery to Crescent Midstream’s Bonefish Pipeline as its unplanned outage following a leak nears its one-month mark.

NextDecade Steps Back from CCS Project with LNG Terminal Under Construction

NextDecade has withdrawn its application for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorization to build a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at the company’s Rio Grande LNG facility currently under construction in far South Texas.

Unexpectedly Large Storage Build Drives Gas Futures Downward

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced Thursday morning that 35 Bcf of natural gas was injected into storage during the week ended August 16. This injection surprised the market, as it was significantly higher than the 26-Bcf average prediction of analysts in the Bloomberg survey.

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