The year started off with a bang for US oil companies as total crude and petroleum exports rose to a record 5.69 million barrels a day in January, government data show.
A surplus of fuels means exports are available all the way down the hydrocarbon chain from crude to propane as resilient US shale producers are learning to grow their output with oil dancing around the US$50-a-barrel mark.
“Records were set in January as crude oil production rose, providing more export volumes,” Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates president Andy Lipow said.
January crude production rebounded from a three-month low to 8.84 million barrels a day, while crude exports jumped 69 percent to a record 746,000.
Preliminary data showed crude exports at 1.21 million barrels in the week of Feb. 17. Shipments abroad have risen since the government in December 2015 lifted a 40-year-old ban on most exports.
Lipow said he expects total hydrocarbon exports to keep rising this year as crude production grows in Texas. Those factors drove the January numbers.
“Combined with poorer gasoline demand and reasonably high refinery utilization rates, the USA had plenty of hydrocarbons to supply the rest of the world,” he said.
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