Domestic policy and geopolitical developments affected China’s refinery activity and trade in 2022 (2/1/2023)

In 2022, less crude oil was processed by refiners in China than in 2021, marking the first year-over-year decrease in data going back to 2000. Less refinery activity in China resulted from mobility restrictions related to COVID-19 and low petroleum product export quotas. As a result, in 2022, China imported less crude oil in total, but more from Russia...

6d

Residential heating oil prices fall while propane prices remain flat (1/25/2023)

At the start of the winter heating season, the retail price of home heating oil in the United States climbed rapidly, establishing a new record toward the beginning of November. The price of propane was slightly above the previous five-year (2017–2021) average at the beginning of the heating season. Since then, the price of home heating oil has fallen...

2w

Refinery utilization drops due to cold weather but will remain high in 2023 and 2024 (1/19/2023)

In our January 2023 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) we forecast prices and volumes of petroleum refining through 2024. Our forecast takes into account a cold weather system that caused outages and mechanical complications in the U.S. refining sector in late December 2022 and early January 2023. The storm contributed to a sharp but temporary reduction...

3w

U.S. crude oil production forecast to reach record highs (1/11/2023)

In our January 2023 Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast that crude oil production in the United States will average 12.4 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2023 and 12.8 million b/d in 2024. Our forecast U.S. crude oil production in both 2023 and 2024 would surpass the previous annual record high of 12.3 million b/d set in 2019. The growth in crude...

4w

Crude oil and petroleum product prices fell in the second half of 2022 from multi-year highs (1/5/2023)

Crude oil and petroleum product prices were higher in 2022 than in 2021, on average, following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The invasion prompted concerns about the availability of global petroleum supplies, particularly Europe's capability to replace sanctioned Russian exports. These supply concerns contributed to crude...

Jan 2023

Happy Holidays (12/29/2022)

On behalf of the authors, support staff, and the many others at EIA who make This Week in Petroleum possible, best wishes for a safe and happy new year. Accompanying charts and tables have been updated to reflect data from the latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report for the week ending December 23, 2022. ...

Dec 2022

This Week in Petroleum: Best of 2022 (12/21/2022)

Today's This Week in Petroleum articles were originally published throughout 2022. New feature articles of This Week in Petroleum will return on January 5, 2023. The retail prices and inventory charts and tables accompanying the feature article have been updated to reflect data from the latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report for the week ending December...

Dec 2022

Increased cash from operations helped U.S. oil producers improve their financial standing beyond pre-pandemic levels (12/14/2022)

Third-quarter 2022 (3Q22) financial results for 50 U.S. exploration and production (E and P) companies show that improved cash from operations went to increase capital expenditure and grow shareholder returns. Our analysis of public financial statements from these companies suggests their capital expenditure this year could increase 35% compared with...

Dec 2022

Tanker rates reach multiyear highs (12/7/2022)

Tanker rates for crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) reached record highs in November 2022. These increases were driven largely by some of the effects of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as well as delays at the Panama Canal. Tanker rates could increase through the winter because on December 5, 2022, the EU ban on...

Dec 2022

Less U.S. jet fuel consumption so far in 2022 than in 2019 (11/30/2022)

U.S. jet fuel consumption so far in 2022 has been consistently below 2019, although airline passenger counts in the United States have nearly returned to 2019 levels in recent months, according to data reported by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). In 2020, U.S. jet fuel consumption fell significantly because of mobility restrictions...

Nov 2022