Under President Trump, the United States became the largest producer of oil in the world.
In 2019, the U.S. produced 12,248,000 barrels per day (bpd), topping Saudi Arabia, which produced 12,000,000 bpd, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Russia produced 10,800,000 bpd, while other nations in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were far behind: Iraq at 4,451,516, Iran at 3,990,956 and Kuwait at 2,923,825.
But things might be changing under President Biden.
At the end of December, Saudi Arabia announced it would cut production by one million barrels per day, which will drop global supply for February by about 1%. The move is intended to reduce supply with diminished demand, which has dropped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Already, drivers are starting to see the effects of reduced supply. The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline jumped 10 cents a gallon over the past two weeks to $2.45, according to The Associated Press — and 13 cents since the beginning of the year.
Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday that a rise in crude oil prices since November caused the increase. Meanwhile, OPEC’s oil supply in January is expected to decrease by approximately 400,000 barrels per day, tanker tracker Petro-Logistics said on Monday.
“Oil prices have risen by 10 percent since the end of 2020 and 8 percent since the OPEC+ meeting two weeks ago, but the rally has nothing to do with the short-term oil demand outlook,” OilPrice.com reported last week. “It has been almost exclusively due to the decision of Saudi Arabia — the world’s top oil exporter and OPEC’s de facto leader — to cut an additional 1 million barrels per day (bpd) from its production in the first quarter.”
“The Saudi ‘generosity’ signals that the Kingdom is willing to forgo short-term market share in order to prop up prices amid weak immediate demand, tighten the market faster, and wait for the opportunity to ramp up production once oil demand rebounds at some point in the second half of 2021,” said the oil website. “Yet, in the process, the Saudis could incentivize increased activity in the U.S. shale patch, which could abandon the promised restraint in spending, and increase production. Higher-than-currently-estimated U.S. oil supply could cap oil price gains and ruin the Saudi attempts to over-tighten the market.”
But it all might get worse. One of Biden’s first move in office was to cancel the expansion of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which carries Canadian crude into the U.S.
“The expansion was originally conceived when oil prices were at historic highs — just before the 2008 financial crisis and American shale oil boom — as an artery that would pump 500,000 barrels of Canadian crude more than 1,700 miles from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast,” The Wall Street Journal reported last week. “The line, which is now partially built but not operating, was eventually expected to transport 830,000 barrels of oil 1,210 miles from the Canadian oil sands to Steele City, Neb., where it would link to existing pipelines heading to Gulf Coast refineries.”
Biden killed all that with an executive order last week.
“The Keystone XL pipeline disserves the U.S. national interest,” Biden’s order said. “The United States and the world face…
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