Category Archives: Oil

03/14/22

The Sticky Math Of Crude Oil Imports v Pipelines

The United States was once upon a time energy independent and then Joe Biden was elected.

Since then, it has become apparent that we need to find some new sources of crude oil particularly since we finally stopped funding the crude Putin War Machine by buying more than 600,000 barrels a day of his nasty Russian crude.

The Biden administration is reportedly looking in Venezuela and Iran to replace that crude which entails the reality that it will be shipped in oil tankers.

Maybe they should look in the United States since we sit on a gigantic reservoir of oil and gas ourselves? Maybe we should re-invigorate the Keystone XL pipeline deal? Using domestic sources would preclude shipping costs and environmental impacts.

What is the environmental cost of importing oil via ship?

There is no alternative when importing oil than ships. Well, except for pipelines, trains, and trucks from Canada.

 

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03/7/22

Russian Oil and Gas Pipelines

To really understand the impact of Russian oil and gas on Europe — and to understand the impact on the future of Ukraine — you have to study the existing pipeline system.

Nobody seems to be willing to do their homework to understand the magnitude of the problem.

Here is a decent schematic showing the network of current pipelines. It is a massive distribution system. Click on this graphic and study the enormity of Russia’s hold on Europe.

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04/2/20

Moving Markets — President Trump And Global Oil

We are living in interesting times. We are facing a pandemic, an economic crisis, a stock market brouhaha, and an oil bust.

Today, we focus on the oil bust. In case you haven’t been following things, the Russians and the Saudis got into a pissing contest as to the level of oil output by the OPEC + bunch.

OPEC + is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries which has been around since 1960 and is in the oil pricing manipulation business. The + means Russia is in the talks.

The result of the Saudi Arabia v Russia pissing contest — the Russians would not agree to reduce production levels — was a collapse in global oil prices with some incredibly low prices — 1950s prices — which then translated into lower gasoline prices.

These two clowns wrecked the global oil business in an amateurish “who has the bigger dick” contest.

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03/8/20

Oil War

If you slept in on Daylight Savings Time, then you may have missed that we have another war erupting in the Middle East — Saudi Arabia (through the newly public Aramco which it controls) has lowered the price of its crude, while threatening to increase crude oil production by more than 2,300,000 barrels daily to a total of 12MM barrels per day.

This is a hissy fit on the heels of an unsuccessful OPEC + meeting (the plus being the addition of Russia) attempt to reduce production by 1.5MM barrels.

As always when this group meets, there was a lot of discussion, but no consensus.

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08/21/18

Texas Oil

Big Red Car here talking Texas oil, y’all. One of the worst reported business phenomenon is the enormous strength of American oil production and Texas’ part in that.

Y’all know all about the enormous flows from shale oil, fracking, and horizontal drilling, right? But, you ask, “How big is it, Big Red Car?”

As you can see, it is an impressive curve with a May 2018 monthly flow of 4,243,000 barrels per day. This is larger than any Middle East country other than Saudi Arabia. Hello, America!

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04/18/16

Oil, Keep An Eye on Oil

Big Red Car here with gasoline prices in the ATX now at a low of $1.69/gallon at Sam’s Club in South Austin where it was about $1.49/gallon less than two months ago. It’s all about the price of oil. Wow!

Still, that is historically cheap.

Big news in the last few days out of Doha — the OPEC + Russia countries were unable to agree to freeze oil production at current levels through the end of 2016.

Saudi oil pic

The fly in the ointment?

You guessed it — Iran.

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