Decreases in the cost to drill shale gas wells and continued investment into domestic production have allowed China to increase its development of shale gas. Although reliance on natural gas imports has increased in the Chinese energy market, future shale…
Month: September 2015
Natural gas prices in Asia mainly linked to crude oil, but use of spot indexes increases
Unlike the natural gas market in the United States, natural gas prices in Asian markets typically reflect contracts that are indexed to crude oil or petroleum product prices. However, Asian countries are developing regional trading hubs so that natural gas…
U.S. nuclear outages were less than 3% of capacity this summer
Outages at U.S. nuclear power plants were extremely low this summer (June through August), averaging 2.9 gigawatts (GW), or less than 3% of total U.S. nuclear capacity. During four days in August, outages dropped to just 0.1 GW out of…
East Coast distillate fuel oil inventories higher than in recent years
Inventories of distillate fuel oil in the U.S. East Coast are higher now than they have been in the previous three years, reaching 59 million barrels on September 18. Most of the recent increase is in the Central Atlantic region,…
Sustained low oil prices could reduce exploration and production investment
Low oil prices, if sustained, could mark the beginning of a long-term drop in upstream oil and natural gas investment. Oil prices reflect supply and demand balances, with increasing prices often suggesting a need for greater supply. Greater supply, in…
Coal mine starts continue to decline
The number of new and reactivated coal mines that began production in 2013 fell to the lowest level in at least the past 10 years. The addition of 103 mines in 2013 came as 271 mines were idled or closed,…
U.S. Gulf of Mexico share of global active offshore rigs declines since 2000
In response to the decline in crude oil prices since mid-2014, the number of active offshore rigs has declined worldwide, dropping close to 20%—304 offshore rigs were operating in August 2015, down from 377 in August 2014. During this period,…
U.S. propane inventories are at an all-time high
U.S. inventories of propane and propylene reached 97.7 million barrels as of September 11, the highest level in the 22 years that EIA has collected weekly propane inventory statistics. In the first six months of 2015, U.S. propane and propylene…
Debt service uses a rising share of U.S. onshore oil producers’ operating cash flow
Results from second-quarter 2015 financial statements of a number of U.S. companies with onshore oil operations suggest continued financial strain for some companies. Low oil prices have significantly reduced cash flow for U.S. oil producers, and to adjust to lower…
Coal use in China is slowing
Economic deceleration, industry restructuring, and new energy and environmental policies have slowed the growth of coal consumption in China and are also driving more centralized and cleaner uses of coal. After nearly a decade of rapid growth, energy-based consumption of…
