Welcome to the Fuel Matters Blog

The United States has significantly ramped up oil production over the past decade, but just how far have they come?  Depending on how you view oil production, the U.S. has just become a net oil exporter for the first time in 70 years.  Bloomberg describes the U.S. as a net petroleum exporter, but Forbes is quick to point out that this includes both crude oil and finished products, as opposed to just crude oil.

U.S. shale production has sustained a years-long boom of rapid growth, but that appears to be coming to an end sooner rather than later.  Following a mixed bag of earnings reports from shale executives, the common belief is that the growth frenzy is slowing down and coming to an end.  According to World Oil, “The key challenge for producers now is to meet investors’ new focus on return of capital.  This comes at a time when companies are facing a prolonged period of lower prices and when access to financing from capital markets has become difficult.”

Plenty of people have heard of Weights & Measures Inspections, but not everyone knows what is regulated and who is responsible for the regulation.  Individual States, not the Federal Government, have bureaus of Weights and Measures that employ inspectors to make annual rounds.  The inspectors typically notify the business ahead of time that they will be coming by to complete the inspection and will allow a representative of the business to accompany them throughout the inspection.  After the inspection is completed the business will receive a formal report to keep on record.

As the debate over the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing rages on, a new report from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission’s (SRBC) continuous water quality monitoring project does not show evidence of water quality changes as a result of natural gas development.  In an article by Kevin Randolph from the Pennsylvania Business Report, he reports that “in January 2010 the SRBC began measuring and reporting water quality conditions in small streams that could potentially be impacted by the natural gas industry.”  The SRBC water quality monitoring project monitors specific conductivity, turbidity and water temperature, which would reveal any immediate impacts from natural gas drilling activities.  One organization that has a particularly strong interest in this report is the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC).

Earlier today, China announced tariff hikes on $75 billion worth of U.S. products as a retaliatory measure against President Trump’s latest tariff message.  China has decided to apply tariffs ranging from 5% to 10% on the $75 billion worth of products in two rounds.  The first round of tariffs will take effect on September 1, while the second round will commence on December 15.  The state council released a statement saying, “In response to the measures by the U.S., China was forced to take countermeasures.  The Chinese hopes that the U.S. will continue to follow the consensus of the Osaka meeting, return to the correct track of consultation and resolve differences, and work hard with China to end the goal of ending economic and trade frictions.”  The stock market and bond yields fell sharply this morning following the announcement.