Oil & Gas News: Technology improving, crude-by-rail in decline

Aug. 3, 2016

No fatalities were reported in 2015 in the U.K. and dangerous occurrences (oil and gas releases, fires and explosions) were also down.

Technology leading to better leak detection on U.K. Continental Shelf

Oil and Gas U.K. reported the U.K. Continental Shelf (UKCS) saw a 9 percent increase in hydrocarbon releases in 2015, but the rise is largely because of the use of technology that detects smaller leaks.

The 87 releases were mostly classified as minor. Three instances were classified as major, which matches 2014 numbers. New legislation also put new reporting criteria in places, which also increased the number of reportable events.

No fatalities were reported in 2015 and dangerous occurrences (oil and gas releases, fires and explosions) were also down in the UKCS.

All graphics courtesy of the U.S. Energy Information Administration

Crude-by-rail movements in decline

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that many factors caused a 45 percent dip in crude-by-rail shipments to the U.S. East Coast compared to the same period last year. These shipments averaged 443,000 barrels per day in the first five months of 2016.

The largest contributor was a decrease in shipments by rail from the Midwest to the East Coast, accounting for about half of the decline. Other reasons include:

  • Narrowing price differences between domestic and imported crude oil
  • New crude oil pipelines
  • Lower domestic production in the Midwest and Gulf Coast onshore regions
Despite the decline, the largest crude-by-rail movement in the U.S. is from the Midwest to the East coast, representing 45 percent of the all crude oil moved by rail in the U.S. in May 2016.

New EIA website highlights petroleum price drivers

The EIA’s "What Drives Petroleum Product Prices" website provides information on how several factors influence gasoline and distillate spot and future prices. Users can find charts that highlights changes in the market, mostly focused on the U.S. domestic market.

The website is designed to show the link between global petroleum product prices, and how their movement affect each other.

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