Despite increased second quarter 2019 returns and production for 42 publicly traded companies, U.S. oil companies' stock prices decline (9/25/2019)

The stock prices of U.S. oil exploration and production (E and P) companies relative to the broader U.S. equity market index have declined since the start of the year. Lower stock prices could make it more difficult for U.S. E and P companies to raise the capital needed for their investment programs. Despite the implication of lower market capitalization, through the second quarter of 2019, the profitability and cash flow generation for the 42 U.S. oil producers the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) regularly follows have increased since 2017, suggesting less reliance on capital markets to fund capital expenditure. EIA based this analysis primarily on the published financial reports of these 42 companies, so it is not necessarily representative of the sector as a whole because the analysis does not represent the financial situation of private companies that do not publish financial reports. ... More »

Saudi Arabia crude oil production outage will affect global oil markets and U.S. gasoline prices (9/18/2019)

On Saturday, September 14, 2019, an attack damaged the Saudi Aramco Abqaiq oil processing facility and the Khurais oil field in eastern Saudi Arabia. The Abqaiq oil processing facility is the world’s largest crude oil processing and stabilization plant with a capacity of 7 million barrels per day (b/d), equivalent to about 7% of global crude oil production capacity. On Monday, September 16, 2019, the first full day of trading after the attack, Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices experienced the largest single day price increase since August 21, 2008 and June 29, 2012, respectively. ... More »

EIA continues to revise 2019 global liquid fuels consumption forecast lower (9/11/2019)

In the September 2019 update of its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revised its forecast for 2019 global liquid fuels consumption down to 100.8 million barrels per day (b/d), 0.1 million b/d lower than the August STEO and 0.7 million b/d lower than the January STEO. EIA attributes the lower forecast 2019 global oil consumption to a downward revision of 0.18 million b/d in the United States and Europe, in addition to downward revisions to forecast consumption in the Middle East and in India (Figure 1). If the September forecast is realized, 2019 would be the first year that global liquid fuels consumption grows less than 1.0 million b/d since 2011. ... More »

U.S. distillate consumption lower in 2019 after record growth last year (9/5/2019)

U.S. total distillate consumption, as measured by product supplied, has been approximately 1.2% lower during the first eight months of 2019 than it was during the same period in 2018. Distillate fuel is linked with economic growth because of its many uses in multiple sectors. Distillate is used by multiple transportation modes as a fuel to move freight and people, by commercial and industrial heavy machinery to build and produce goods, in agriculture for farming, and in residential and commercial sectors as a heating fuel. Trends in several of these end-use sectors explain some of the reasons behind slowing demand growth for distillate fuel in the United States. ... More »

U.S. retail gasoline prices heading into Labor Day are lower than last year (8/28/2019)

The U.S. average retail price for all formulations of regular gasoline on August 26, 2019, was $2.57 per gallon (gal), 25 cents/gal (9%) lower than the price at the same time last year (Figure 1). This decline in the price of gasoline has been driven by lower North Sea Brent crude oil prices (a global benchmark for crude oil and the most relevant determinant of U.S. gasoline prices), drops in year-over-year demand, and high gasoline inventory levels. ... More »

2018 OPEC net oil export revenues highest since 2013, but likely to decline (8/21/2019)

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) earned almost $711 billion in net oil export revenues in 2018 (Figure 1). The estimate is up 29% from 2017, but about 40% lower than the record high of almost $1,200 billion in 2012. The 2018 earnings increase is mainly a result of higher crude oil prices. The Brent spot price rose from an annual average of $54 per barrel (b) in 2017 to $71/b in 2018. However, EIA forecasts annual OPEC net oil export revenues will decline to $593 billion in 2019 and to $556 billion in 2020. Decreasing OPEC revenues are primarily a result of decreasing production among a number of OPEC producers. ... More »