cheka.
25th February 2017, 02:21 AM
article is Houston centric, but good info that applies to other similar US ports/energy companies
fracking hysteria, like most other doomer-porn hysterias, lands with a thud :(
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Houston-transforms-the-U-S-into-an-energy-10958210.php
Houston's role as an exporter has grown as the region's energy companies employed hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to unlock vast new reserves of oil and natural gas, leading to a boom in production and an abundance of cheap oil and gas that are feedstocks for refiners and petrochemical manufactures. The Houston area last year exported more than it imported by nearly $14 billion, running a trade surplus even as the U.S. trade deficit - meaning imports exceeded exports - widened to $502 billion, according to federal trade statistics.
U.S. gasoline exports, the vast majority coming from Gulf Coast refineries, have exploded from 4 million barrels a month in 2007 to 25 million barrels a month at the end of last year. As recently as 2010, the Gulf Coast imported more chemicals and plastics than it exported, according the economic research firm IHS Markit. But by 2025, the region from Corpus Christi to New Orleans - primarily the Greater Houston area - is projected to export more than 42 million metric tons of bulk chemicals and plastics, six times the volume of imports and more than triple the amount shipped to foreign markets in 2010.
Ethane, which is used almost exclusively for chemical manufacturing, is one of the most dramatic examples of the shift in Houston's balance of trade. For decades, the U.S. relied on imports of ethane, one of the natural gas liquids that are by-products of oil and gas drilling. As recently as 2010, the nation exported fewer than 100,000 barrels a day of ethane and other natural gas liquids such as propane.
But today, exports of natural gas liquids exceed 1 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Department. Ethane production, meanwhile, is expected to double between 2013 through 2018, with a large share heading to petrochemical manufacturers in Asia and Europe through Houston.
Congress lifted a 40-year ban on crude exports at the end of 2015. U.S. oil exports exceeded 1 million barrels in a week for the first time ever in early February and, last week, jumped above 1.2 million barrels, more than doubling the weekly average of a year ago. Houston pipeline companies, such as Plains All American, are responding by spending hundreds of millions of dollar to build and expand pipelines and terminals to move oil from the Permian Basin and other Texas shale plays and store it along the Houston Ship Channel.
The Port of Houston, meanwhile, is undergoing more than $1 billion in upgrades - including new cargo cranes - to accommodate the growth in exports.
Between 1945 and 2010, U.S. gasoline exports never reached 10 million barrels of gasoline in a single month. Today, according to the Energy Department, the U.S. routinely ships more than 20 million barrels per month to foreign markets; in November, the U.S. exported a record 25 million barrels of gasoline, most of it produced along the Gulf Coast and much of it going to Mexico, according to Energy Department data.
fracking hysteria, like most other doomer-porn hysterias, lands with a thud :(
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Houston-transforms-the-U-S-into-an-energy-10958210.php
Houston's role as an exporter has grown as the region's energy companies employed hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to unlock vast new reserves of oil and natural gas, leading to a boom in production and an abundance of cheap oil and gas that are feedstocks for refiners and petrochemical manufactures. The Houston area last year exported more than it imported by nearly $14 billion, running a trade surplus even as the U.S. trade deficit - meaning imports exceeded exports - widened to $502 billion, according to federal trade statistics.
U.S. gasoline exports, the vast majority coming from Gulf Coast refineries, have exploded from 4 million barrels a month in 2007 to 25 million barrels a month at the end of last year. As recently as 2010, the Gulf Coast imported more chemicals and plastics than it exported, according the economic research firm IHS Markit. But by 2025, the region from Corpus Christi to New Orleans - primarily the Greater Houston area - is projected to export more than 42 million metric tons of bulk chemicals and plastics, six times the volume of imports and more than triple the amount shipped to foreign markets in 2010.
Ethane, which is used almost exclusively for chemical manufacturing, is one of the most dramatic examples of the shift in Houston's balance of trade. For decades, the U.S. relied on imports of ethane, one of the natural gas liquids that are by-products of oil and gas drilling. As recently as 2010, the nation exported fewer than 100,000 barrels a day of ethane and other natural gas liquids such as propane.
But today, exports of natural gas liquids exceed 1 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Department. Ethane production, meanwhile, is expected to double between 2013 through 2018, with a large share heading to petrochemical manufacturers in Asia and Europe through Houston.
Congress lifted a 40-year ban on crude exports at the end of 2015. U.S. oil exports exceeded 1 million barrels in a week for the first time ever in early February and, last week, jumped above 1.2 million barrels, more than doubling the weekly average of a year ago. Houston pipeline companies, such as Plains All American, are responding by spending hundreds of millions of dollar to build and expand pipelines and terminals to move oil from the Permian Basin and other Texas shale plays and store it along the Houston Ship Channel.
The Port of Houston, meanwhile, is undergoing more than $1 billion in upgrades - including new cargo cranes - to accommodate the growth in exports.
Between 1945 and 2010, U.S. gasoline exports never reached 10 million barrels of gasoline in a single month. Today, according to the Energy Department, the U.S. routinely ships more than 20 million barrels per month to foreign markets; in November, the U.S. exported a record 25 million barrels of gasoline, most of it produced along the Gulf Coast and much of it going to Mexico, according to Energy Department data.