swing producer

It’s a new world, folks. The Saudis and Russians, who until a few days ago had been trying to prop up crude oil prices through supply management, are now engaged in an all-out war for market share. Crude oil prices are sharply lower. Three weeks ago, West Texas Intermediate was selling for $53/bbl and Western Canadian Select for $37/bbl; yesterday, they were selling for $34/bbl and $22/bbl, respectively. And things may get worse. All this has profound implications for North American production, but the effects on production in U.S. shale plays versus the Canadian oil sands will be very different. Today, we explain how the oil sands provide steady-as-she-goes baseload supply through pricing peaks and valleys while U.S. shale plays serve as a global swing supplier.

U.S. crude oil production has doubled in the past eight years, from 5.5 MMb/d in 2010 to a record 11.0 MMb/d this month — an astonishing 9% compound annual growth rate. But there’s more to the Shale Revolution than higher production. Its most noteworthy characteristic may be a newfound market responsiveness that U.S. production volumes have to price, in which U.S. producers flex their “sweet spots” and an at-the-ready inventory of drilled-but-uncompleted wells (DUCs) that can be ramped up when prices warrant and pulled back when they don’t. This newfound flexibility has profoundly changed the role of the U.S. in global markets. In today’s blog, we take a big-picture look at crude oil production growth, the special ability of U.S. producers to respond to shifts in crude pricing, and the potential for the U.S. to have a stabilizing role in global markets.