Liquified natural gas tanker being loaded
The Energy Information Administration released its long awaited report on the impact of U.S. natural gas exports and it should be very exciting for every American interested in jobs and growth. The EIA says not only will exporting our sudden abundance of natural gas be a good idea, but it could prove to be a boom for the US economy. The EIA examined many “what-if” scenarios and under every one it found that the impact of liquefied natural gas exports would be a positive for the economy under each one. The EIA says that it would be possible that the US could produce almost four billion cubic feet of gas per day by 2027 which is about 6.6% of the country's current natural-gas consumption.
Of course some are not happy. Some manufactures are worried that we may give up some of our low gas price comparative advantage! Environments say they believe fraccing pollutes groundwater. They say they believe it does, but they have no evidence that it does. The NATION reported that fraccing causes cattle's ears and tails to fall off. Of course I think they also believe that cattle are being mutilated by aliens as well.
Oil prices got hit by a massive build in U.S. gasoline supplies as refiners rose to the occasion to replace lost supply in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy! It was like the Fourth of July as refinery runs surged above 90! The EIA reported that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 2.4 million barrels from the previous week. At 371.8 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 7.9 million barrels last week and are in the upper half of the average range. Both finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories increased last week. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.0 million barrels last week but remained well below the lower limit of the average range for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 0.3 million barrels last week, but remained well above the upper limit of the average range. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 5.9 million barrels last week.
