The Texas Gulf Coast oil terminals sent abroad more crude than they received in April, the Energy Information Administration said this week. During that month, crude oil exports from the Houston-Galveston port district exceeded imports by 15,000 bpd. Over the next month, the advantage of exports over imports welled further, to an impressive 470,000 bpd.
Total U.S. oil exports in may hit a record of 2 million bpd, with Houston-Galveston’s share of the total at a record-breaking 70 percent, from an average of about 50 percent since the middle of 2017, the EIA said.
The bulk of crude oil exports from the Houston-Galveston area went to China, Canada, Italy, and the UK, with exports to China averaging 300,000 bpd in both June and July. This month, however, not a single crude oil cargo has been loaded for China, according to media reports, amid growing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Meanwhile, however, Texas is on track to become the biggest oil producer after Russia and Saudi Arabia, according to production estimates by HSBC, quoted by CNN. If the estimates turn out to be correct, the Lone Star State will be pumping almost 6 million bpd in 2019.
RBC goes further, expecting production in Texas to boom to more than 6.5 million barrels daily over the next seven to ten years. Not everyone is so optimistic, however. Skeptics believe the shale oil boom in Texas led by the Permian Basin, will peak at much lower levels than 6 million bpd, not least because of the substantial debt loads of many shale drillers in the area.
Until this happens, oil production in the state is growing: over the 12 months to June it added 27 percent to 4.3 million bpd, according to the latest report from the Texas Alliance of Energy producers. This represented 40 percent of the U.S. total for that month.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Drill, Baby! Drill!
ps
#MAGA
The statistics reported in this article appear to be for the Houston-Galveston "District", which, in US Customs/US Census reporting, is a different entity from either the "Port of" Houston-Galveston or the Texas Ports. The Houston-Galveston Port District also does not include all Waterway "Ports" in Texas. In US Census/US Customs data reporting, the Houston-Galveston "District" includes the ports of Houston, Galveston, Texas City, Freeport, Victoria, Port Lavaca, and Corpus Christi. THE HOUSTON GALVESTON DISTRICT DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PORTS OF PORT ARTHUR, BEAUMONT, AND SABINE PASS, TEXAS - the largest or second largest crude oil export complex in the US, and the third largest bulk tonnage Port in the United States.
I do this kind of research for a living, and I would be glad to (for free) help clarify this if you have questions.
Mike Measells
Beaumont, Texas
@rjs: texas has one major port, it's in galveston/houston. Where do you think it's exported? Amarillo? Good luck with that.
There are a dozen other reasons and it's very complex system. Factors include ports available for import and export for different kinds of prices at different distances. Trade agreements and changing long and short term trading partner relationships to name a few factors.
In any case "bravo" and well done. More to build a trade surplus and shrink the deficit. Something desperately needed.
Somebody should at least read the book "The Prize" as apparently they have never heard of it either.
How long has it been since we built a refinery? 50 years? More US refineries should help lower the cost of gasoline. More oil and gasoline means lower prices - for someone. Initially, it may be the Europeans who benefit since they have sky high gasoline prices. Democrats have always wanted us to join Europeans with their high gasoline prices, to encourage conservation. In the UK, they pay more than 6$ a gallon.
Oil exports should strengthen the dollar. I pulled up a chart of dollars vs. euros. The dollar strengthened under President Trump. For some reason, some of that gain was reduced in April and May. The strength of the dollar reflects many things, including ALL imports and exports.