Global oil markets are entering a pivotal phase as exploration-driven reserve replacement lags. With only a few bright spots like Namibia and Guyana, estimates suggest that just 25–30% of the oil consumed each year is currently being offset by new discoveries.
The current level of drilling activity is also some 30% higher than it was before the war in the Ukraine started, Bloomberg noted, in evidence of the resilience of Russia’s energy industry to Western sanctions. Some of these targeted specifically the oil and gas industry on the assumption that local producers would be crippled if access to Western technology and equipment was cut off.
In a bid to revitalise Ghana’s declining oil and gas sector, Energy Minister John Jinapor has met with members of the Ghana Upstream Petroleum Chamber to discuss key challenges and potential solutions.
Canada, the U.S.’s largest foreign oil supplier, is particularly on edge. Over 60% of U.S. imported crude comes from north of the border, much of it the heavier kind that U.S. refineries are designed to process. A tariff could make that oil 25% pricier overnight, sending prices at the pump to uncomfortably high levels.
Over the last decade, the US has become the top producer of crude oil globally, thanks in part to hydraulic fracturing in shale formations.
The US overtook Saudi Arabia and Russia in oil production in 2018, accounting for 14.7% of global crude oil production in 2022.
Despite leading in production, the US still trails in remaining proven reserves underground, ranking seventh globally behind countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.
The Trans Mountain pipeline project is inching closer to becoming operational and a commodities analyst says Canada’s oil sector will benefit significantly once the pipeline project comes online.
According to the WSJ, some drillers are building gas-power plants and using the gas that would have been otherwise flared to generate the electricity they need to power their machinery.
Oil producers in Texas, New Mexico, and North Dakota are contributing to a substantial increase in electricity sales.
Grid constraints have emerged as one of the biggest obstacles to the transition of the United States from a hydrocarbon-powered to an electricity-powered economy.
The head of Russian oil major Gazprom Neft said on Saturday he sees no need for additional oil supply cuts by OPEC+ oil producers, days before the group is due to meet on output policy.