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According to recent data and forecasts from Rystad Energy, Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras, is on track to become the world’s largest oil producer among publicly listed companies by 2030.  Earlier this month, Brazil held an oil deposit auction on four blocks with the hopes of receiving interest from international exploration and production companies.  The results of the auction were underwhelming with only two of the four blocks being sold and many of the world’s biggest oil firms not participating.  This led to Petrobras being the sole winner of the Itapu block, while being a ninety percent stakeholder in the Buzios block with Chinese state-owned oil firm CNOOC and CNODC owning the remaining ten percent.

AAA recently published their Thanksgiving travel predictions; they are estimating over 55 million people will be hitting the roads and skies this season.  The number of travelers is factored using a trip calculation of 50 miles or more away from home. According to the analysis, “This will be the second-highest Thanksgiving travel volume since AAA began tracking in 2000, trailing only the record set in 2005. Overall, an additional 1.6 million more people will travel compared with last year, a 2.9% increase. The vast majority of holiday travelers will drive to their destinations and, INRIX, a global transportation analytics company, expects Wednesday afternoon to be the worst travel period nationally, with trips taking as much at four times longer than normal in major metros.”  Although AAA expects the largest increase to take place with drivers on the road it is important to note that their largest air delays will take place in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston.

On December 16^th, 2019, motor carriers and drivers who currently must record their hours-of-service (HOS) will be required to comply with the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rule. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, an ELD is a technology that automatically records a driver’s driving time and requirements for the hours-of-service records. ELD’s will provide more accurate hours-of-service documentation which will hold trucking companies to higher levels of accountability to help make the roads safer.

Make no mistake, winter plays a big part of our daily lives.  When you are involved in the transportation industry, it can have a huge impact!  Icy roads can cause accidents and delays, increasing the demand for carriers.  Here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, with our first snowfall on record books, we can say that winter is coming.

According to a global energy industry forecast, oil growth will continue to soar until the 2030’s and climate-damaging emissions will keep climbing until at least 2040. The World Energy Outlook is not only closely watched by the oil industry but also the governments due to its relevance to climate policy. The International Energy Agency said that almost 20% of the growth in last year’s global energy use was “due to hotter summers pushing up demand for cooling and cold snaps leading to higher heating needs.” The Internation Energy Agency (IEA) forecast global oil demand to be 106.4 million barrels per day by 2040 (up from 96.9 million last year).