Welcome to the Fuel Matters Blog

Tis the season for winter weather and this week we are experiencing the full effects of winter storm Gail, marching up the east coast. Many from Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania have all felt these effects which includes slick road conditions and delayed travel.

It is that time of year where the holidays are starting to begin! Even with restrictions and guidelines that COVID - 19 brought with 2020, many markets and businesses are closed for Thanksgiving, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to meet consumer needs. Let’s look at some of this year’s statistics.

During the last quarter of 2020, everyone can agree that economically, we have seen better days. Especially in the energy industry, spending cuts, revised budgets, and slashed investments have played an impact. However, we are starting to see hope for offshore drilling stated by Rystad Energy, a global oil and gas analytics firm. Their analysts anticipate a 40% growth in Floatable Production Storage and Offloading facilities (FPSOs). China has taken an interest in FPSO’s and prepared its shipyards for an increase in new orders.

Hurricane season is far from over as we still have the rest of October as well as part of November. Over the past 2 months, we have seen substantial effects on gulf coast refineries. The Gulf coast offshore production makes up 1.5 million barrels per day (bdp) of oil output, which was all shut down last month due to Hurricane Laura, which lasted roughly from August 20^th – August 29^th.

The use of drones are being utilized in various industries all the time, from the military to recreation, but could we see the use of drones in the oil and gas industry? Of course, the drone model DJI M300 is used quite frequently in refinery inspections. “The accuracy of measurement increases with every new DJI drone model” says, Italian Engineer and spokesman, Flavio Dolce.