As cash flow increases, U.S. oil companies continue trends of debt reduction and hedging (7/25/2018)

First-quarter 2018 financial results for the 46 U.S. oil exploration and production companies EIA regularly tracks reveals that they used increased cash from operations to fund capital expenditures and reduce debt. Most of these companies have announced planned increases in capital expenditures from 2017 to 2018 and have already hedged more oil production for 2018 and 2019. ... More »

Despite takeaway capacity constraints, the Permian region is expected to drive U.S. crude oil production growth through 2019 (7/18/2018)

In the July update of its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that U.S. crude oil production will average 10.8 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2018 and 11.8 million b/d in 2019. If realized, both of these forecast levels would surpass the previous record of 9.6 million b/d set in 1970. EIA's monitoring of current rig activity in several producing regions suggests continued production growth from tight-oil formations, such as shale in the Permian region, is driving overall U.S. production increases (Figure 1). ... More »

EIA expects Brent crude oil prices to average $73 per barrel in the second half of 2018, then fall to $69 per barrel in 2019 (7/11/2018)

In the July 2018 update of its Short–Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that Brent crude oil prices will average $73 per barrel (b) in the second half of 2018 and $69/b in 2019. EIA expects West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices will average $7/b lower than Brent prices in the second half of 2018 and $7/b lower in 2019 (Figure 1). ... More »

EIA uses gasoline product supplied as a proxy for demand, not retail consumption (7/5/2018)

Many analysts use the motor gasoline product supplied data in the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) to discern trends in U.S. gasoline consumption. To interpret the data effectively, it is important to understand what product supplied is and what it is not. The large scale and timing of each of the components of product supplied can sometimes lead to week-to-week changes in product supplied volumes that are not indicitive of actual consumption patterns. Because of these dynamics, finished motor gasoline product supplied measured using a four-week rolling average is a more robust method of discerning trends. ... More »