International [Oil & Gas News] America Achieved Energy Independence As The World's Top Oil Producer (2018-2019)

So what oil shares am I buying? A guy here told me he had on a company in east Texas and another in Dakota.
Don't. Oil producers don't and won't outperform the market. Many franking companies have piles of debt
 
I don’t understand how a single drone attack on a single refinery has shutdown half of their production??

Which part of this simple notion do you find hard to understand? o_O



The Houthis said they had launched the aerial attacks with 10 drones, which would amount to their most audacious strike on Saudi Arabia since the kingdom intervened in Yemen’s war more than four years ago.

The targeted oil facilities can process 8.45 million barrels of crude oil a day between them, the bulk of production in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter. Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant, said production of 5.7 million barrels a day — well over half of the nation’s overall daily output — was suspended.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/14/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-refineries-drone-attack.html
 
U.S. oil’s 10% surge after Saudi attack puts it on track for the biggest daily gain in 3½ years
Sept 15, 2019

MW-HR332_aramco_20190915222432_ZH.jpg

Oil futures surged in electronic trading Sunday, with West Texas Intermediate set to jump more than 10% on Monday after a weekend drone attack on major crude facilities in Saudi Arabia threatened to create a supply crunch that was roiling global crude markets.

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery CLV19, +9.61%, the U.S. benchmark contract, was up 10.4%, or $5.71, at $60.57 a barrel on electronic exchange Globex on Sunday. A gain of that magnitude, if prices hold through Monday’s settlement, would represent the largest daily gain for the most-active contract since Feb. 12, 2016, according to FactSet data.

November Brent crude BRNX19, +10.63% jumped $6.97, or 11.6%, to trade at $67.18 a barrel, which would also mark the sharpest daily rise for the international benchmark grade since February 2016.

The run-up in prices would also place both Brent oil and WTI at their highest levels since around May.

Price spikes in crude come after a Saturday attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq plant and its Khurais oil field, which has thrown offline an estimated 5.7 million barrels of the kingdom’s crude oil production a day, equivalent to more than 5% of the world’s daily supply.

The Wall Street Journal, citing Saudi officials, have said a third of output would be restored on Monday, but a return to full production may take weeks, experts have said.

Analysts at S&P Global Platts estimated that Brent oil, the international benchmark, could see a $5 or $10 price surge from its current levels, which could push it to test the $70 range.

“As such prices are likely to break out of the current $55-65/Bbl options range, to test the high $70s as currently supported by fundamentals,” the researchers said.

“In my opinion, it would appear that 3 million barrels will be back online in the next two to five days, but around 2.7 million barrels will take longer due to the unique nature and customized gear at Abqaiq in particular,” wrote Robert Yawger, director of energy at Mizuho Securities, in a Sunday research note.

The Abqaiq facility normally produces 9.8 million barrels of oil a day and is considered one of the world’s largest processors of crude.



President Donald Trump said in a series of tweets that he has authorized the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, “if needed” to “keep the markets well-supplied.”

The U.S. Department of Energy said the 630 million barrels from the SPR, the largest stockpile of crude in the world, would be made available “to offset any disruptions to oil markets as a result of this act of aggression.”

“The SPR was last made available during the 2011 Libyan supply disruptions,” Yawger noted

The threat of further escalation involving the U.S. also holds the potential to drive crude prices higher still. Trump on Sunday said the U.S. was “locked and loaded,” suggesting that military action may be undertaken. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the attacks, which Tehran officials have denied.

Tensions are already elevated between Iran and the U.S. after Trump pulled out of a global nuclear pact and imposed fresh sanctions against Iran.

Researchers from the Eurasia Group on Sunday said “the scale of [the weekend] attack will encourage markets to re-examine the need for considering an oil geopolitical risk premium.”

“A small $2-$3 premium would emerge if the damage appears to be an issue that can be resolved quickly, and $10 if the damage to Aramco’s facilities is significant leasing to prolonged supply outages,” Eurasia analysts wrote in a Sunday research report. “At the moment, global balances not as loose as 2018 but not tight either. As a result, the U.S. would only release crude from its Strategic Petroleum Oil Reserves (SPR) if damages to Saudi infrastructure appear critical or oil prices spike significantly,” they said.


https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u...he-biggest-daily-gain-in-312-years-2019-09-15
 
Natural gas is oils silent partner, all the effort yet pennies on the dollar for a clean burning energy source. And we have what seems like unlimited supplies.
 
Natural gas is oils silent partner, all the effort yet pennies on the dollar for a clean burning energy source. And we have what seems like unlimited supplies.
Yep. It used to be pie in the sky expensive. But now it's a viable and easily obtained option
 
Seems like the U.S. has benefited greatly from Saudi's tragedy..... :cool:
 
I read that 5% of the world's crude was just destroyed. I am fully anti interventionist in the middle East, but that is going to hurt IS no matter what.
 
I read that 5% of the world's crude was just destroyed. I am fully anti interventionist in the middle East, but that is going to hurt IS no matter what.
Wasn't destroyed. Taken offline.
But yeah IS and anything propped up by Iran is going to get ground up
 
US oil production climbs to record as net imports decline
09 Oct 2019​

20191010_us_crude_stocks.gif
Washington — US oil production averaged a record 12.6 million b/d last week as US net imports of crude oil fell to levels not seen since February, the US Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

In its Weekly Petroleum Status Report for the week ending October 4, the agency said domestic crude production had increased by 1.4 million b/d from the same week a year ago.

In its Short-Term Energy Outlook Tuesday, EIA forecast monthly US oil output to average 13 million b/d by December, but that roughly 1 million b/d of annual growth is expected to slow in 2020, climbing less than 400,000 b/d over the course of next year.

20191010_us_crude_imports.gif

US imports of crude oil averaged over 6.22 million b/d last week, down about 67,000 b/d from last week and down more than 1.17 million b/d from the same week last year, the agency said.

For the 20th week in a row, the US imported no crude from Venezuela and for the fifth week in a row imported no Kuwaiti crude, EIA data shows. US refiners imported over 3.4 million b/d from Canada and 524,000 b/d from Mexico last week, up nearly 100,000 b/d and 193,000 b/d, respectively, from last week, according to the EIA. Imports of Saudi crude fell to 350,000 b/d, down 120,000 b/d from the previous week and down 531,000 b/d from the same week a year ago.

US net imports of crude averaged over 2.82 million b/d last week, down 601,000 b/d from the previous week, as US crude exports climbed over 3.4 million b/d, up 534,000 b/d from the previous week and the highest weekly domestic average since the third week of June when 3.77 million b/d were exported. US net crude imports fell below 2.56 million b/d in the week ending February 22 before climbing to nearly 4.2 million b/d the following week, EIA data showed.

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/...ction-climbs-to-record-as-net-imports-decline
 
Last edited:

Special Report: ‘Time to take out our swords' - Inside Iran’s plot to attack Saudi Arabia
Reuters said:
(Reuters) - Four months before a swarm of drones and missiles crippled the world’s biggest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia, Iranian security officials gathered at a heavily fortified compound in Tehran.
  • FILE PHOTO: Smoke is seen following a fire at Aramco facility in the eastern city of Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, September 14, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer/
    The group included the top echelons of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite branch of the Iranian military whose portfolio includes missile development and covert operations.

    The main topic that day in May: How to punish the United States for pulling out of a landmark nuclear treaty and re-imposing economic sanctions on Iran, moves that have hit the Islamic Republic hard.

    With Major General Hossein Salami, leader of the Revolutionary Guards, looking on, a senior commander took the floor.

    “It is time to take out our swords and teach them a lesson,” the commander said, according to four people familiar with the meeting.

    Hard-liners in the meeting talked of attacking high-value targets, including American military bases.

    Yet, what ultimately emerged was a plan that stopped short of direct confrontation that could trigger a devastating U.S. response. Iran opted instead to target oil installations of America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, a proposal discussed by top Iranian military officials in that May meeting and at least four that followed.

    This account, described to Reuters by three officials familiar with the meetings and a fourth close to Iran’s decision making, is the first to describe the role of Iran’s leaders in plotting the Sept. 14 attack on Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled oil company.

    These people said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the operation, but with strict conditions: Iranian forces must avoid hitting any civilians or Americans.

    Reuters was unable to confirm their version of events with Iran’s leadership. A Revolutionary Guards spokesman declined to comment. Tehran has steadfastly denied involvement.

    Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York, rejected the version of events the four people described to Reuters. He said Iran played no part in the strikes, that no meetings of senior security officials took place to discuss such an operation, and that Khamenei did not authorize any attack.

    “No, no, no, no, no, and no,” Miryousefi said to detailed questions from Reuters on the alleged gatherings and Khamenei’s purported role.

    The Saudi government communications office did not respond to a request for comment.


    The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon declined to comment. A senior Trump administration official did not directly comment on Reuters’ findings but said Tehran’s “behavior and its decades-long history of destructive attacks and support for terrorism are why Iran’s economy is in shambles.”

    Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, at the center of a civil war against Saudi-backed forces, claimed responsibility for the assault on Saudi oil facilities. That declaration was rebuffed by U.S. and Saudi officials, who said the sophistication of the offensive pointed to Iran.

    Saudi Arabia was a strategic target.

    The kingdom is Iran’s principal regional rival and a petroleum giant whose production is crucial to the world economy. It is an important U.S. security partner. But its war on Yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians, and the brutal murder of Washington-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents last year, have strained its relations with U.S. lawmakers. There was no groundswell of support in Congress for military intervention to aid the Saudis after the attack.

    The 17-minute strike on two Aramco installations by 18 drones and three low-flying missiles revealed the vulnerability of the Saudi oil company, despite billions spent by the kingdom on security. Fires erupted at the company’s Khurais oil installation and at the Abqaiq oil processing facility, the world’s largest.

    The attack temporarily halved Saudi Arabia’s oil production and knocked out 5% of the world’s oil supply. Global crude prices spiked.

    The assault prompted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to accuse Iran of an “act of war.” In the aftermath, Tehran was hit with additional U.S. sanctions. The United States also launched cyber attacks against Iran, U.S. officials told Reuters.

    SCOURING TARGETS
    The plan by Iranian military leaders to strike Saudi oil installations developed over several months, according to the official close to Iran’s decision making.

    “Details were discussed thoroughly in at least five meetings and the final go ahead was given” by early September, the official said.

    All of those meetings took place at a secure location inside the southern Tehran compound, three of the officials told Reuters. They said Khamenei, the supreme leader, attended one of the gatherings at his residence, which is also inside that complex.

    Other attendees at some of those meetings included Khamenei’s top military advisor, Yahya Rahim-Safavi, and a deputy of Qasem Soleimani, who heads the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign military and clandestine operations, the three officials said. Rahim-Safavi could not be reached for comment.

    Among the possible targets initially discussed were a seaport in Saudi Arabia, an airport and U.S. military bases, the official close to Iran’s decision making said. The person would not provide additional details.


    Those ideas were ultimately dismissed over concerns about mass casualties that could provoke fierce retaliation by the United States and embolden Israel, potentially pushing the region into war, the four people said.

    The official close to Iran’s decision making said the group settled on the plan to attack Saudi Arabia’s oil installations because it could grab big headlines, inflict economic pain on an adversary and still deliver a strong message to Washington.

    “Agreement on Aramco was almost reached unanimously,” the official said. “The idea was to display Iran’s deep access and military capabilities.”

    The attack was the worst on Middle East oil facilities since Saddam Hussein, the late Iraqi strongman, torched Kuwait’s oil fields during the 1991 Gulf crisis.

    U.S. Senator Martha McSally, an Air Force combat veteran and Republican lawmaker who was briefed by U.S. and Saudi officials, and who visited Aramco’s Abqaiq facility days after the attack, said the perpetrators knew precisely where to strike to create as much damage as possible.

    “It showed somebody who had a sophisticated understanding of facility operations like theirs, instead of just hitting things off of satellite photos,” she told Reuters. The drones and missiles, she added, “came from Iranian soil, from an Iranian base.”

    A Middle East source, who was briefed by a country investigating the attack, said the launch site was the Ahvaz air base in southwest Iran. That account matched those of three U.S. officials and two other people who spoke to Reuters: a Western intelligence official and a Western source based in the Middle East.

    Rather than fly directly from Iran to Saudi Arabia over the Gulf, the missiles and drones took different, circuitous paths to the oil installations, part of Iran’s effort to mask its involvement, the people said.

    Some of the craft flew over Iraq and Kuwait before landing in Saudi Arabia, according to the Western intelligence source, who said that trajectory provided Iran with plausible deniability.

    “That wouldn’t have been the case if missiles and drones had been seen or heard flying into Saudi Arabia over the Gulf from a south flight path” from Iran, the person said.

    Revolutionary Guards commanders briefed the supreme leader on the successful operation hours after the attack, according to the official close to the country’s decision making.

    Images of fires raging at the Saudi facilities were broadcast worldwide. The country’s stock market swooned. Global oil prices initially surged 20%. Officials at Saudi Aramco gathered in what was referred to internally as the “emergency management room” at the company’s headquarters.

    One of the officials who spoke with Reuters said Tehran was delighted with the outcome of the operation: Iran had landed a painful blow on Saudi Arabia and thumbed its nose at the United States.

  • SIZING UP TRUMP
    The Revolutionary Guards and other branches of the Iranian military all ultimately report to Khamenei. The supreme leader has been defiant in response to Trump’s abandonment last year of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly called the Iran nuclear deal.

    That 2015 accord with five permanent members of the U.S. Security Council – the United States, Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom – as well as Germany, removed billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran’s curbing its nuclear program.

    Trump’s demand for a better deal has seen Iran launch a two-pronged strategy to win relief from sweeping sanctions reimposed by the United States, penalties that have crippled its oil exports and all but shut it out of the international banking system.

    Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has signaled a willingness to meet with American officials on condition that all sanctions be lifted. Simultaneously, Iran is flaunting its military and technical prowess.

    In recent months, Iran has shot down a U.S. surveillance drone and seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel through which about a fifth of the world’s oil moves. And it has announced it has amassed stockpiles of enriched uranium in violation of the U.N agreement, part of its vow to restart its nuclear program.

    The Aramco attacks were an escalation that came as Trump had been pursuing his long-stated goal of extricating American forces from the Middle East. Just days after announcing an abrupt pullout of U.S. troops in northern Syria, the Trump administration on Oct. 11 said it would send fighter jets, missile-defense weaponry and 2,800 more troops to Saudi Arabia to bolster the kingdom’s defenses.

    “Do not strike another sovereign state, do not threaten American interests, American forces, or we will respond,” U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned Tehran during a press briefing.

    Still, Iran appears to have calculated that the Trump administration would not risk an all-out assault that could destabilize the region in the service of protecting Saudi oil, said Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit working to end global conflict.

    In Iran, “hard-liners have come to believe that Trump is a Twitter tiger,” Vaez said. “As such there is little diplomatic or military cost associated with pushing back.”
Iran isn't stupid. They realized what Democrats have not; that Trump is Teddy's inverse: a "Twitter Tiger". He walks loudly, and carries a tiny stick.

I think that's been a good thing, but you can only threaten "red lines" so many times before people realize that even the might USA isn't to be feared when it does nothing but bluff. A preemptive strike like the one he conducted on Assad's air force base is already a distant memory.
 
Russia's Putin says shale oil technologies are 'barbaric'
Sam Meredith | Wed, 20 Nov 2019​

106256135-1574262758620gettyimages-1183612579.530x298.jpeg

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sharply criticized nations like the U.S. for ignoring the environmental impact of shale oil and gas production, describing it as a "barbaric" process that the Kremlin has no interest in pursuing.

Speaking at a business conference in Moscow Wednesday, Putin said: "Today's technology of shale oil production and shale gas are without any doubt … barbaric."

"These technologies destroy the environment," he explained via a translation, before adding that the areas affected by the extraction process were typically left in a "precarious situation."

"In spite of all of the economic benefits, we do not need it and we will never do this," Putin said.

The U.S. Department of Energy was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC on Wednesday. Output increases in the Permian Basin of Texas, as well as other major formations, have helped the U.S. become the world's largest producer of oil.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly forecast that U.S. crude oil output from seven shale formations was projected to rise to a record high of 9.13 million barrels per day in December.

Advocates of fracking, the fossil fuel extraction process used in the U.S., say it vastly expands natural gas supply — a cleaner fuel than crude oil — and cuts costs for consumers.

But, critics of the process have sounded the alarm over its negative environmental impacts, including air and groundwater pollution and increasing earthquake risk.

Industry analysts argue the fracking industry is supported by a wide range of interests, not least the U.S. economy and national security.

"You can rest assured that Russia shall always be a responsible actor in the global energy market," Russia's Putin said on Wednesday.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/11/20/russias-putin-says-shale-oil-technologies-are-barbaric.html
 
Last edited:
U.S. oil production at all time high, reaches 12.8 million barrels per day in November
ADRIAN HEDDEN | CARLSBAD CURRENT-ARGUS | November 22, 2019​

Production of U.S. crude oil rose to an all-time high in October, peaking at 12.6 million barrels per day last month and continuing to grow to 12.8 million barrels per day as of Nov. 8.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed oil production consistently grew throughout 2019, up from January’s peak of 11.9 million barrels per day, crossing the 12 million barrel-per-day threshold in March.

By the end of August, production was about 12.5 million barrels per day, but dipped slightly to 12.4 million by the end of September, records show.

October’s rate of 12.6 million barrels per day was consistent throughout the month, with production climbing in the second week of November to 12.8 million barrels.

A report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) cited the rise in production, coupled with lower prices throughout October.

“Across the board, the October results were a great reflection of how market forces have benefited consumers,” said API Chief Economist Dean Foreman. “Decreased oil prices in October – despite record demand for the month and solid exports – underscored the influence of U.S. oil production on global markets and helped insulate consumers from external shocks.”

Robert McEntyre, spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association said New Mexico's Permian Basin was leading the growth.

He said the State was nearing one million barrels per day, having already surpassed 900,000 barrels per day earlier this year.

"This accomplishment for this country shows the strength of the Permian Basin and in places like New Mexico where investment and development has accelerated in recent years," McEntyre said. "As national oil and gas production increased, that's coming from a handful of shale basins, but mostly from New Mexico."

United States a world leader in oil production

The rise in production further solidified the U.S. as the top oil-producing country in the world, the report read.

For total petroleum products, including crude oil, petroleum liquids and biofuels, the EIA reported the U.S. lead the world with 17.9 million barrels per day, or 18 percent of global production.

The U.S. was ahead of Saudi Arabia, which has 12.4 million barrels per day or 12 percent of the world's total production, and Russia with 11.4 million barrels per day or 11 percent of the global market.

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance credited the Permian Basin and New Mexico as a “primary” contributor the U.S. rise to oil production prominence.

She also pointed to the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and the Bakken in North Dakota as significant regions of production in the U.S.

“The Permian Basin, including New Mexico, is a primary reason the United States has reached record production,” Sgamma said. “But other oil areas in the West such as the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and the Bakken in North Dakota have contributed as well.”

The biggest challenge facing the oil industry, she said, is the constantly growing need for pipelines and other infrastructure to address a “glut” in natural gas brought up with crude oil.

“The challenge continues to be the high percentage of associated natural gas from oil wells in these areas,” Sgamma said. “Because there’s a glut of natural gas in the United States, there simply isn’t a market for all the extra gas.”

Without enough infrastructure to move the natural gas, Sgamma said producers are often forced to burn it off via flaring or shut in wel

More natural gas exportation from the U.S. helped the situation, she said, but the only solution was more pipelines and takeaway capacity.

“Additionally, there often isn’t enough pipeline infrastructure to capture all the gas, resulting in flaring or a shut in of oil production. Natural gas export is helping to relieve the situation, but new pipelines and export facilities take years to develop,” Sgamma said.

“Meanwhile, oil production growth can be constrained until the gas infrastructure catches up.”

Increased pipeline developments allowed more oil to be produced, Foreman said, as a slowdown in production earlier this year was credited to a lack of infrastructure to move product to export markets on the Gulf Coast.

Oil prices maintain momentum

The value of U.S. crude oil continued its upward trend this week, as the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) – a grade of crude used as a benchmark for domestic pricing – continued in the upper $50s, trading at about $57 per barrel as of Monday, per data from Nasdaq.

Monday's price saw a mild decline from the month's highest price of about $58 per barrel on Friday, but continued its recovery from lower prices earlier this fall.

That rate was the highest in November, which began at $56 per barrel, following a drop on Oct. 31 to $54 per barrel.

October bottomed out at about $52 per barrel, following September's high of $62 per barrel.

A report from Enverus credited the upward momentum to growing optimism in the global market, as trade talks between the U.S. and China appeared be nearing fruition and the U.S.' continued economic expansion.

https://amp.currentargus.com/amp/4231024002
 
Oil production is at an all time high and we have more natural gas than we can store. The future is looking bright for US energy independence and production.

Meanwhile corrupted state-run oil companies are declining. Feels good man.
 
Fucking lol.

The environmentalists, and Gretta are obviously Russian agents.

Get on it MSM.

Russia is also a big polluter, they are just pissed about local pollution when the largest issue is climate change.
 
The future is looking bright for US energy independence and production.

The future is as grim as ever because cheap oil is holding back renewables and by the time we are out of fossil fuels the damage will be too much.
 
Back
Top