U.S. refinery capacity virtually unchanged between 2017 and 2018 (6/27/2018)

As of January 1, 2018, U.S. operable atmospheric crude distillation capacity totaled 18.6 million barrels per calendar day (b/cd), a slight decrease of 0.1% since beginning of 2017 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) recently released Refinery Capacity Report. Annual operable crude oil distillation unit (CDU) capacity had increased each of the five years before 2018 and has remained greater than 18 million b/cd since January 1, 2016. The capacities of secondary units that support heavy crude oil processing and production of ultra-low sulfur diesel and gasoline, including thermal cracking (coking), catalytic hydrocracking, and hydrotreating/desulfurization, increased slightly from year-ago levels. These downstream capacity increases are primarily the result of debottlenecking-when refineries increase the throughput of existing infrastructure-rather than large new builds (Figure 1). ... More »

Oil company proved reserves additions in 2017 were most since 2013 while expenditures were about half (6/20/2018)

In 2017, a group of the world’s largest publicly traded oil and natural gas producers added more hydrocarbons to their resource base than in any year since 2013, according to the annual reports of 83 exploration and production companies. Collectively, these companies added a net 8.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) to their proved reserves during 2017, which totaled 277 billion BOE at the end of the year. Exploration and development (E and D) spending in 2017 increased 11 percent from 2016 levels, but remained 47 percent lower than 2013 levels. ... More »

EIA expects Brent prices will average $71 per barrel in 2018 before declining to $68 per barrel in 2019 (6/13/2018)

In the June 2018 update of its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts Brent crude oil prices will average $71 per barrel (b) in 2018 and $68/b in 2019. The new 2019 forecast price is $2/b higher than in the May STEO. The increase reflects global oil markets balances that EIA expects to be tighter than previously forecast because of lowered expected production growth from both the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the United States. Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $77/b in May, an increase of $5/b from April and the highest monthly average price since November 2014. EIA expects West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices will average almost $7/b lower than Brent prices in 2018 and $6/b lower than Brent prices in 2019 (Figure 1). ... More »

2018 EIA Energy Conference (6/6/2018)

There is no feature article for This Week in Petroleum today. Thanks to all who attended and participated in the 2018 EIA Energy Conference. ... More »