Cenovus saw record oil sands production of 784 Mb/d in the second quarter, up 9 Mb/d compared to the first quarter, despite some planned downtime in Q2, according to the company’s quarterly report and conference call on July 29th.
Crude oil — often mistakenly described as a single, standardized commodity — is anything but uniform. Every stream has its own chemical fingerprint, including differences in density and sulfur content. Today, we’ll dig into why crude quality matters and how it can make a real difference to the bottom line.
The U.S. energy industry is continuously evolving. Unlike the previous era of unconventional supply growth, demand is increasingly determining where capital will be deployed, reshaping investment priorities. That’s today’s subject and the focus of our upcoming School of Energy: Foundations.
The early signs of a rebound can be seen in Venezuela, where crude oil production and exports are on the rise, although plenty of unknowns remain. Today, we look at how much Venezuelan crude is reaching the U.S., how the U.S. import slate has changed, and preview our latest Drill Down Report.
U.S. crude oil production averaged a record 13.6 MMb/d in 2025, up nearly 1.6 MMb/d from 2023, but crude export volumes remained remarkably stable — at or very near 4.1 MMb/d — until a recent Iran-related surge. A key reason: “capacity creep” expansion projects at several Gulf Coast refineries.
The U.S. is seeing softer domestic demand for traditional fuels, but pockets of the country remain highly dependent on imported gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. Today, we’ll zero in on which PADDs are at the highest risk for shortages and price spikes if the Iran war drags on for an extended period.
U.S. refineries are, of course, far less dependent on crude oil from the Middle East than they were before the Shale Revolution. But the cutoff in oil supplies from the Persian Gulf is forcing several U.S. refiners to look elsewhere for the mostly medium-sour crude they had been sourcing from the region.
While most of the discussion about Venezuela involves crude production, it’s important to know that the country was also once a major refiner before it began a decade-long downturn. Today, we look at the history of Venezuela’s refining sector and the prospects for a turnaround.
As a part of what the Trump administration has coined as its “Energy Dominance” initiatives, the administration has thrown its support behind several infrastructure projects that have long been on the industry’s radar but, for one reason or another, not come to fruition.
The U.S. is on the brink of a major transformation in refined products. New pipelines into the Desert Southwest and connecting out to California, along with refinery shutdowns along the West Coast, are poised to usher U.S. refiners into a new era shaped by consolidation, efficiency and market power.
