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U.S. Oil Output Tops 12M Barrels a Day for First Time

31 points by aginovski 7y ago

MentallyRetired 7y ago
Wasn't there a political expectation that if we produced our own oil, the price would drop? That was false from the start because we're a part of OPEC, right?
- skrowl 7y ago
  The United States is not a member of OPEC, if that's "us" and "we" to you https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm
- gameswithgo 7y ago
  its false because opec exists and can, sometimes, keep price relatively stable. its possible/likely that if the USA had not produced so much oil via fracking the price would be much higher right now, because opec does not have so much ability to boost production as it used to.
- dahdum 7y ago
  US is not part of OPEC. US production was meant to stabilize prices, increase supply, improve national security, and generate economic return.
perfunctory 7y ago
> Crude output from the Permian is expected to jump 50% by 2025, according to BloombergNEF
entropea 7y ago
Glad to see we're hitting climate goals.
googoogaga 7y ago
Good. The more oil we pump, the less we import, the more we export (generally). Obviously different industries require different flavors of oil, but tight oil usually has great characteristics - light and sweet. A lot of people don't know this, but the oil industry was founded almost entirely by Americans, its good to see the US back on top. I've had the pleasure of working for a large driller as a software engineer. The innovation in drill tech is unbelievable. I hope all of you get the chance to read about the upstream industry - phenomenal work being done. Oil is an industry where a ton of the knowledge is only documented in books or the minds of the workforce. so better yet, visit your local rig site.
pjc50 7y ago
Or 0.43 metric tons CO2/barrel, per https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-and-references https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-ca...
docker_up 7y ago
The transformation of the US for largest importer to largest exporter in only a few years is stunning. Unfortunately, this is a geopolitical tactic to crush Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations like Iran so that it defunds terrorism. The tipping point for the US between electric cars and gas is about $6/gallon from what I've read. CA is getting close, I'm paying $4/gallon but most of that is taxes these days. We can't move forward until we get rid of $2/gallon gas throughout the country.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  “but most of that is taxes these days. ” I just looked this up and so far I found in CA is 69 cents per gallon. Am I missing something?
  - mrkstu 7y ago
    Partially taxes, but mostly unique regulations and lack of pipelines: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenrwald/2018/09/28/california-is-approaching-4-gasoline-but-it-has-only-itself-to-blame/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenrwald/2018/09/28/californi...
- pjc50 7y ago
  It's not so much a tactic as a technologically-enabled event. The US is not about to "crush" Saudi Arabia, it's actively fighting along side them in Yemen. UK petrol prices have been close to equivalent of $6/USgal for a while - currently about £1.20 per liter, £4.50/USgal = $5.67, and electric cars are still pretty scarce. Hybrid taxis have been popular for a while though.
  - CalRobert 7y ago
    The falling cost of EV's and renewable energy is a relatively recent phenomenon too, though. Even 5 years ago vs. now, the choice to buy EV has gotten easier. If I were in the market for a new car, I'd be looking at EV's. I drive about 5-6000 miles a year and can't really justify the money, though (and tbh 6,000 miles a year at 50+mpg means driving is a relatively small part of my carbon footprint. Really, I need to fly less)
jorge-d 7y ago
Oil is such a great industry. Most of the oil production increase in the last years in the US is due to fracking; such an amazing technology where a bunch of chemicals are injected directly into the ground. Ted-ed has a good video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tudal_4x4F0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tudal_4x4F0 Lets screw up the environment by not quitting our society's oil dependency so that a few shareholders of [INSERT_RANDOM_OIL_COMPANY_hERE] can enjoy all the $$$ while future generations (and probably us too given how fast this go) get to pay the price.
- hrangozz 7y ago
  I will not be at all surprised when disease rates in areas near fracking skyrocket. Of course it will take probably ten years to even loosely correlate illnesses and deaths with "new" oil activity, and longer still for any change of course (if ever) In many ways it feels like we still live in the wild west
  - googoogaga 7y ago
    Please source your claims. Fracking most definitely increases rates of low Richter scale seismic activity. However, fracking does not pollute groundwater. Wastewater injection, a process which happens once a fracked well is exhausted, can - if done improperly. However, your claim is nothing but anti-science drivel unless you source it. Do you also believe vaccinations are harmful because they "inject chemicals into your body"? These processes are more nuanced then you think and are heavily regulated.
  - hanniabu 7y ago
    While I agree, they'll deny it all and say correlation does not equal causation, we don't care about common sense, and we have better lawyers than so fuck you we'll keep doing this and raking in the cash until your land is decimated and useless and we'll move on to the next plot of land to destroy and profit off of.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
deleted 7y ago
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ComputerGuru 7y ago
Just yesterday, OPEC agreed to continue to reduce production through 2020 to counter falling demand/prices. Edit: Falling demand for OPEC oil, I mean.
- adventured 7y ago
  They're not countering falling demand, so much as trying to keep prices high in the face of a wall of supply from the US. They're constraining their own supply, while the US absorbs most of the demand growth. OPEC's forecast for 2019 remains for an expectation of about a million barrels per day of global growth, mostly coming from India and China.
cronix 7y ago
Yet gas prices keep going up. Someone is making a lot of money.
rcMgD2BwE72F 7y ago
“Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”
francisofascii 7y ago
Oil execs and lobbyists are worried about renewables. Better extract as much profit as we can now before renewable energy tech gets better. Keep prices low so consumption stays high. Convince the American people domestic drilling is a good thing, even though it depletes oil reserves for the long term. The oil industry today is similar to the logging industry a century ago.

31 points by aginovski 7y ago

Wasn't there a political expectation that if we produced our own oil, the price would drop? That was false from the start because we're a part of OPEC, right?

skrowl 7y ago
The United States is not a member of OPEC, if that's "us" and "we" to you https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm
gameswithgo 7y ago
its false because opec exists and can, sometimes, keep price relatively stable. its possible/likely that if the USA had not produced so much oil via fracking the price would be much higher right now, because opec does not have so much ability to boost production as it used to.
dahdum 7y ago
US is not part of OPEC. US production was meant to stabilize prices, increase supply, improve national security, and generate economic return.

perfunctory 7y ago

> Crude output from the Permian is expected to jump 50% by 2025, according to BloombergNEF

entropea 7y ago

Glad to see we're hitting climate goals.

googoogaga 7y ago

Good. The more oil we pump, the less we import, the more we export (generally). Obviously different industries require different flavors of oil, but tight oil usually has great characteristics - light and sweet. A lot of people don't know this, but the oil industry was founded almost entirely by Americans, its good to see the US back on top. I've had the pleasure of working for a large driller as a software engineer. The innovation in drill tech is unbelievable. I hope all of you get the chance to read about the upstream industry - phenomenal work being done. Oil is an industry where a ton of the knowledge is only documented in books or the minds of the workforce. so better yet, visit your local rig site.

pjc50 7y ago

Or 0.43 metric tons CO2/barrel, per https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-and-references https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-ca...

docker_up 7y ago

The transformation of the US for largest importer to largest exporter in only a few years is stunning. Unfortunately, this is a geopolitical tactic to crush Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations like Iran so that it defunds terrorism. The tipping point for the US between electric cars and gas is about $6/gallon from what I've read. CA is getting close, I'm paying $4/gallon but most of that is taxes these days. We can't move forward until we get rid of $2/gallon gas throughout the country.

Ididntdothis 7y ago
“but most of that is taxes these days. ” I just looked this up and so far I found in CA is 69 cents per gallon. Am I missing something?
- mrkstu 7y ago
  Partially taxes, but mostly unique regulations and lack of pipelines: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenrwald/2018/09/28/california-is-approaching-4-gasoline-but-it-has-only-itself-to-blame/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenrwald/2018/09/28/californi...
pjc50 7y ago
It's not so much a tactic as a technologically-enabled event. The US is not about to "crush" Saudi Arabia, it's actively fighting along side them in Yemen. UK petrol prices have been close to equivalent of $6/USgal for a while - currently about £1.20 per liter, £4.50/USgal = $5.67, and electric cars are still pretty scarce. Hybrid taxis have been popular for a while though.
- CalRobert 7y ago
  The falling cost of EV's and renewable energy is a relatively recent phenomenon too, though. Even 5 years ago vs. now, the choice to buy EV has gotten easier. If I were in the market for a new car, I'd be looking at EV's. I drive about 5-6000 miles a year and can't really justify the money, though (and tbh 6,000 miles a year at 50+mpg means driving is a relatively small part of my carbon footprint. Really, I need to fly less)

jorge-d 7y ago

Oil is such a great industry. Most of the oil production increase in the last years in the US is due to fracking; such an amazing technology where a bunch of chemicals are injected directly into the ground. Ted-ed has a good video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tudal_4x4F0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tudal_4x4F0 Lets screw up the environment by not quitting our society's oil dependency so that a few shareholders of [INSERT_RANDOM_OIL_COMPANY_hERE] can enjoy all the $$$ while future generations (and probably us too given how fast this go) get to pay the price.

hrangozz 7y ago
I will not be at all surprised when disease rates in areas near fracking skyrocket. Of course it will take probably ten years to even loosely correlate illnesses and deaths with "new" oil activity, and longer still for any change of course (if ever) In many ways it feels like we still live in the wild west
- googoogaga 7y ago
  Please source your claims. Fracking most definitely increases rates of low Richter scale seismic activity. However, fracking does not pollute groundwater. Wastewater injection, a process which happens once a fracked well is exhausted, can - if done improperly. However, your claim is nothing but anti-science drivel unless you source it. Do you also believe vaccinations are harmful because they "inject chemicals into your body"? These processes are more nuanced then you think and are heavily regulated.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  While I agree, they'll deny it all and say correlation does not equal causation, we don't care about common sense, and we have better lawyers than so fuck you we'll keep doing this and raking in the cash until your land is decimated and useless and we'll move on to the next plot of land to destroy and profit off of.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

ComputerGuru 7y ago

Just yesterday, OPEC agreed to continue to reduce production through 2020 to counter falling demand/prices. Edit: Falling demand for OPEC oil, I mean.

adventured 7y ago
They're not countering falling demand, so much as trying to keep prices high in the face of a wall of supply from the US. They're constraining their own supply, while the US absorbs most of the demand growth. OPEC's forecast for 2019 remains for an expectation of about a million barrels per day of global growth, mostly coming from India and China.

cronix 7y ago

Yet gas prices keep going up. Someone is making a lot of money.

rcMgD2BwE72F 7y ago

“Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”

francisofascii 7y ago

Oil execs and lobbyists are worried about renewables. Better extract as much profit as we can now before renewable energy tech gets better. Keep prices low so consumption stays high. Convince the American people domestic drilling is a good thing, even though it depletes oil reserves for the long term. The oil industry today is similar to the logging industry a century ago.