The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released a paper on the short term domestic forecast for domestic crude oil production by type. According to the EIA, it is important to study crude type production projections for several reasons:
- US crude streams vary widely in quality.
- The economics surrounding various options for the domestic use of additional domestic oil production are directly dependent on crude quality characteristics.
- Actual or potential export values also vary significantly with quality characteristics.
The EIA highlights that production of light sweet crude from tight resource formations. Approximately 96% of the 1.8 million bpd growth in production between 2011 and 2013 consisted of light sweet grades with API gravity of 40 or above and a low sulfur content of 0.3% or less.
EIA analysis suggests that US supply of lighter API gravity crude will continue to outpace that of medium and heavier crudes. More than 60% of EIA’s forecast of production growth for 2014 and 2015 consists of sweet grades.
EIA has additionally analysed crude oil production according to seven regions.
Adapted from a press release by Emma McAleavey