February 25, 2015 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Forms EIA-860 and EIA-923 Note: Data include facilities with a net summer capacity of 1 MW and above only. Wind plant generation performance varies throughout the year as a result of highly seasonal wind patterns. Nationally, wind plant performance tends to be highest during the spring and lowest during the mid- to late summer, while performance during the winter (November through February) is around the annual median. However, this pattern can vary considerably across regions, mostly based on local atmospheric and geographic conditions. Unlike conventional fossil-fueled generators, there is no fuel or other variable cost associated with wind power generation. As a result, a wind plant's capacity factor —a measure of the plant's generation as a percentage of its maximum generating capacity—is very closely related to the available wind resource, or average wind speed. In general, wind plant capacity factors tend...

February 24, 2015 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Supply Monthly , Monthly Energy Review Note: Distillate fuel volumes with sulfur content below 15 parts per million produced before 2004 are included in the 'between 15 and 500 ppm' category. Distillate fuel supply for 2014 includes estimated volumes for December 2014 from the Short-Term Energy Outlook, February 2015. Republished February 24, 2015, 9:30 a.m. to correct an error. Distillate fuel oil supply consists primarily of diesel fuel used for transportation and of heating oil burned in furnaces and boilers. Over the past 20 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has regulated the amount of sulfur contained in diesel fuel to enable reductions in harmful emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from diesel engines . Since 2006, most distillate fuel has had less than 15 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur, a drastic change from the early 1990s, when high-sulfur...

February 23, 2015 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Oil Price Information Service, Thomson-Reuters Note: RBOB is reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending. With the exception of two short periods in late 2013 and the first quarter of 2014, when winter-related logistical bottlenecks drove up ethanol prices , spot ethanol prices have consistently been lower than gasoline prices from December 2011 through October 2014. However, with the sharp decline in crude oil and gasoline prices in the latter months of 2014, gasoline spot prices fell below ethanol spot prices in early November. For most of December through mid-January, ethanol was priced about 30 cents per gallon more than wholesale gasoline; since that time, the gap between the spot prices of ethanol and gasoline has narrowed. In considering how the relationship between ethanol and gasoline prices affects the incentive to blend ethanol into gasoline, it is important to take account...

February 20, 2015 Working natural gas in storage has surpassed five-year average levels for the first time in more than a year. At 2,157 billion cubic feet (Bcf) as of February 13, stocks are 58 Bcf greater than the five-year average. Recent extremely cold weather may result in high stock withdrawals for the week ending February 20, which could again push stocks below their five-year average. However, natural gas production in February and March that is forecast to average 5 Bcf/day above the year-ago level is likely to contribute to healthy inventories and moderate prices as the nation moves from winter into spring. At no point during 2014 did inventories surpass their five-year average; the most recent excess was on November 22, 2013. Inventories ended the 2013-14 winter withdrawal season last March at a 10-year record low of 837 Bcf . After a record injection season in 2014 (April-October), weekly working...

February 18, 2015 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Drivers of Household Energy Consumption The growth in residential energy use has slowed to below the rate of household growth, meaning that per-household energy consumption has decreased. Analysis of EIA's Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) conducted since 1980 shows how improvements in energy efficiency reduced energy intensity enough to offset more than 70% of the growth in both the number of households and the size of dwellings. Between 1980 and 2009 (the most recent survey year), delivered energy used by U.S. households increased from 9.3 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) to 10.2 quads, an average growth of 0.3% per year. The change in delivered energy during this period can be broken into component factors, including number of households, structural changes (the mix of housing types, the geographic distribution of households, and changes in average floor area), weather, and energy intensity (measured...

February 17, 2015 Republished February 17, 2015, 9:35 a.m. to clarify those involved in legal challenges to the standards. Following a court challenge that caused a previous proposal to be sent back for further analysis, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a new proposed rulemaking to increase the minimum efficiency standards for gas furnaces, which are mostly fueled by natural gas but also include propane furnaces. Gas furnaces are one of the largest energy consumers in the residential sector, accounting for about one-fifth of the energy delivered to homes and apartments in the United States. The proposed standard would increase the minimum efficiency standard for these furnaces for the first time since 1992. As discussed in a previous Today in Energy article , gas furnaces were one of the first products covered by federal appliance standards. The first standard, enacted by Congress in 1987 and made effective starting in...

February 13, 2015 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration calculations with data from DrillingInfo, Canadian National Energy Board, Cedigaz, Fact Global Energy China Monthly, Chevron, and Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Note: Actual production from Canada through October 2014. November and December 2014 totals estimated. Canadian shale gas production total includes the Montney formation. Republished February 13, 2015, 10:30 a.m. to clarify China and Argentina's production of shale gas and tight oil, respectively. The United States, Canada, China, and Argentina are currently the only four countries in the world that are producing commercial volumes of either natural gas from shale formations (shale gas) or crude oil from tight formations (tight oil). The United States is by far the dominant producer of both shale gas and tight oil. Canada is the only other country to produce both shale gas and tight oil. China produces some small volumes of shale gas, while Argentina produces...

February 12, 2015 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Bloomberg, International Monetary Fund Saudi Arabia is the largest exporter of crude oil and other petroleum liquids in the world, and their oil exports accounted for 89% of the country's total revenue in 2014. The recent decline in global oil prices is decreasing the value of these exports, leading to a potential budget shortfall. In its 2015 budget, Saudi Arabia plans to spend about $230 billion but expects to take in $190.7 billion in revenue, resulting in an overall deficit of $38.6 billion. While the oil price assumption was not specified in Saudi Arabia's budget, the budget was crafted in December 2014, when crude oil prices were between $55 and $70 dollars per barrel. In addition to having the second-largest proved oil reserves —268 billion barrels, or 16%, of the world total in 2014, behind only Venezuela's 298 billion...

February 10, 2015 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Crude Import Tracking Tool Note: Heavy crude has an API gravity = 35. Medium crude has an API gravity between 27 and 35. Sweet crude has 0.5% sulfur content or less. Sour crude has more than 0.5% sulfur content. The increase in U.S. shale and tight crude oil production has resulted in a decrease of crude oil imports to the U.S. Gulf Coast area, particularly for light-sweet and light-sour crude oils. These trends are visualized in EIA's crude import tracking tool , which allows for time-series analysis of crude oil imported to the United States. Historically, Gulf Coast refineries have imported as much as 1.3 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of light-sweet crude oil, more than any other region of the country. Beginning in 2010, improvements to the crude distribution system and sustained increases in production in the region (in the Permian and...

February 9, 2015 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook Despite some supply disruptions and security threats, Iraq was the second-leading contributor to global oil supply growth in 2014, behind only the United States. Iraq accounted for almost 60% of production growth among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), although this growth was more than offset by production declines in other OPEC countries. Iraq's crude oil production, which averaged almost 3.4 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2014, was 330,000 bbl/d above 2013 levels, despite the heightened security threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and disrupted production in northern Iraq. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, Iraq Country Analysis Brief ISIL attacks in northern Iraq in early June 2014 reduced northern Iraqi production and refinery operations (not including the Iraqi Kurdistan Region). These attacks did not affect...