US reportedly relaxing ban on crude oil exports

[longknife]

Another case of government strangling private enterprise. All it needs is the least reason to stick a toe in before it fully enters and establishes rules and regulations written by nameless and unaccountable bureaucrats.

Last month, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said at a press briefing in South Korea that overseas sales of crude oil might soon be allowed because domestic stockpiles have hit record highs above and beyond refinery capacity in the states.

We are producing record amounts of gas and oil and they just now are deciding this? Uh, maybe they might approve it. Don't cross your fingers.

Read more @ US reportedly relaxing ban on crude oil exports | Al Jazeera America with a link to the WSJ that wants you to subscribe first.

OBAMA EXECUTIVE ORDER ALLOWS U.S. CRUDE OIL EXPORTS FOR FIRST TIME IN DECADES @ Obama Executive Order Allows U.S. Crude Oil Exports for First Time in Decades

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says, "Yea - let's use up Mexico's oil first...

Mexico Proposes Historic Crude Oil Swap With US
January 08, 2015 — Mexico's state oil company, Pemex, said Thursday that it had proposed an oil swap with the United States, potentially ushering in the first sustained crude imports by Mexico from its northern neighbor after years of self-sufficiency.

Pemex said it had set out a plan to import up to 100,000 barrels a day of light crude and condensates to mix with its own heavier crude at domestic refineries. In exchange, Mexico would provide the United States with heavier Mexican crude for processing at U.S. refineries, and would use the imports from the United States to boost local gasoline and diesel output. An official at Pemex said the oil swap could go ahead as soon as the first quarter of this year. While Mexican officials signaled their readiness to import crude several times last year, Thursday's news was the first official confirmation that they were seeking a formal swap that would open the door to sales despite a 40-year-old U.S. ban on exports.

If approved, the imports could be a watershed in energy relations with the United States, where output has surged because of a shale boom. Until now, Mexico, the world's 10th-biggest producer of crude, has focused on exporting much of that oil, though it already imports much of its gasoline. The proposal, which is still being negotiated with the U.S. government, does not signal an increase in Mexican oil shipments to the United States, Pemex said. "This does not represent an additional commitment to the 803,000 barrels of Mexican crude that were exported on average daily to the United States last year,'' Pemex said.

The logo of Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex is seen at a Mexico City gas station.

Following the Mexican government's 2013 energy reforms, which ended Pemex's 75-year monopoly on production and exploration of oil and gas, the state-run company will soon face the arrival of powerful foreign competitors. Pemex, whose output slipped last year to the lowest on record, said the oil swap would help improve processing at its Salamanca, Tula and Salina Cruz refineries, and would also enable the company to cut transport costs.

In the late 1990s, Mexico and the United States conducted an exchange of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Mexico is the third-biggest crude supplier to the United States, behind Canada and Saudi Arabia, but it has maintained a decades-old devotion to crude oil self-sufficiency at home. U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said this week that the United States was in talks with Mexico over whether to export light crude oil to its neighbor.

Mexico Proposes Historic Crude Oil Swap With US

 

[waltky]

Wonder what the price of gas was back then?...

Oil hits April 2009 low, then pares loss on U.S. oil rig data
9 Jan.`15 - Global oil markets resumed their slide on Friday, with Brent and U.S. crude hitting April 2009 lows and ending down for a seventh straight week, although prices recovered from their lows after a sharp drop in the U.S. oil rig count.

Benchmark Brent crude broke below $49 a barrel but closed above the $50 support level it had clung to this week after oil services firm Baker Hughes reported the largest drop in 24 years in the number of U.S. oil drilling rigs. Crude prices had barely moved in the past two sessions after tumbling 10 percent the first two days of the week. In Friday's early trade in New York, prices drifted about 50 cents lower as robust U.S. jobs data for December helped limit losses.

The selling gained force about an hour to noon, pushing both Brent and U.S. crude to an April 2009 trough. Prices retraced their losses after the rig count issued by Baker Hughes. "In my opinion we have not stabilized out yet," said Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors in Laurel Hollow in New York. "I do think that after seven weeks of losses, you will see a bounceback at some point, and people are waiting for that to short into. I am." Brent settled down 85 cents at $50.11 a barrel, after falling earlier to $48.90. U.S. crude settled down 43 cents at $48.36, having hit $47.16 earlier. For the week, Brent lost 11 percent and U.S. crude 8 percent.

Brent's premium to U.S. crude, meanwhile, fell to a near three-month low of $1.70 a barrel. In June, before the market tumble that erased more than 50 percent off oil prices, Brent traded nearly $10 higher to U.S. crude. The number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States fell by 61 this week, the most in a week since 1991, Baker Hughes reported. The rig count has fallen in 10 of the last 13 weeks, from a record high of 1,609 in mid-October. The current count of 1,421 in the week to Jan. 9 is the lowest since February.

Oil analysis firm Wood Mackenzie said in a report on Friday that even at $40 levels, less than 2 percent of global crude production was at risk of making losses. "Operators may prefer to continue producing oil at a loss rather than stop production - especially for large projects such as oil sands and mature fields in the North Sea," Wood Mackenzie analyst Robert Plummer added.

Oil hits April 2009 low then pares loss on U.S. oil rig data - Yahoo News

 

[Mr. H.]

Isn't it ironic that the U.S. is now producing massive volumes of lighter crudes and condensates, yet has little capacity with which to process them? This goes back decades to when we imported much more oil than we produced, forcing refineries to build heavy-crude processing components to handle the nasty shit supplied by OPEC etc.

Today it's reversed. Whodathunkit?

 

[longknife]

Just saw a report that a deal's in the works for Mexico to trade its heavy crude with the US for lighter crude it can refine for sale through PEMEX

 

[Mr. H.]

Just saw a report that a deal's in the works for Mexico to trade its heavy crude with the US for lighter crude it can refine for sale through PEMEX

Yeah, I caught that too.

It's a shame we don't have the capacity to refine and/or finish the lighter grades in this country. This goes back decades to when we imported twice what we do now, and we had to build capacity in order to refine the dirty shit we get from overseas.

Speaking of dirty shit, this is why we need the Keystone XL pipeline in order that Canada can replace OPEC countries as our preferred supplier.

 

[Mr. H.]

I think I just repeated myself.

I shall now self Brotch-slap.