U.S. saluted as net energy exporter
Technological advances that led to increased recovery rates for oil and natural gas helped the nation achieve what had been unthinkable just 20 years ago.
In September, the U. S. became a net exporter of total energy, something it hadn't been in nearly 60 years. Meanwhile, production has remained strong as midstream service providers have added pipeline capacities to move product out of key producing basins.
In November, the U.S. set an average production record of 12.8 million barrels of crude oil per day.
“Never before has a major energy-consuming nation also become a top global exporter of total energy — usually, it's the other way around,” Dean Foreman, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute, said earlier this week.
“The fact that U. S. production has been able to simultaneously satisfy strong domestic demand and supply continued international demand for U.S. exports, while maintaining relatively low and stable prices, is remarkable.”
Foreman made those comments and others while reviewing the institute's fourth-quarter 2019 industry outlook and statistical production data for oil and natural gas in November.
The institute, like the U. S. Energy Information
Administration, is projecting that the nation will see continued production growth of both oil and natural gas during the coming year.
Its outlook notes that natural gas demand for electricity generation increased 5.6% through November in 2019, compared to the same period the previous year.
It also notes that average daily demand for U.S. petroleum products in November was 21 million barrels, the highest on record for that month, and that U.S. crude oil and petroleum exports remained steady above 8 million barrels per day.