Page 30 - Next Generation 2015 - Digtial Issue
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Next Generation Europe
ENERGY US TAKES CENTRE
STAGE IN ENERGY
SHIPPING DRAMA
Tankers and gas carriers are poised for a
shake-up, as new trades emerge from leading
global energy player, writes Hal Brown
WE ARE living in the most interesting crisis of crude that has an obvious
era of global energy for more than a solution.
century, which dramatically affects
everyone operating within the tanker CRUDE EXPORTS
and gas carrier industry.
US crude inventories continue to
Shifts in global trade dynamics build, leading many to speculate that
over the past decade have been a key future development will be a
momentous, sweeping up everything new crude export route emerging out
in their wake and forcing us all to of the US on tankers.
reassess the future, the risks and the
opportunities. Such a development would
undoubtedly offer new employment for
North America, in particular the crude tankers, though at this stage it’s
US, is the protagonist in this new high- uncertain exactly how many would be
stakes drama being played out in front required to haul cargoes out of the US
of our eyes. in the coming years.
The onshore aspect of the US shale Data from Washington’s Energy
revolution is a story that’s been well Information Administration show how
told over the past decade — millions pressing the situation is becoming.
of column inches given over to the
rise of new US discoveries of oil and Crude storage at Cushing,
natural gas trapped deep underground Oklahoma, reached 54.4m barrels
in shale rock, which only new drilling mid-March, after increasing for 15
techniques can dislodge. consecutive weeks, which was the
highest volume stored at Cushing on
The shipping element of this record.
energy revolution is covered less in the
mainstream media, but it’s a story that Storage is so high because US
is no less compelling. crude production keeps rising, largely
due to ambitious shale oil producers.
And it is becoming even more
so, with the high levels of US crude Highlighting this, US crude
production creating a national storage production stood at 9.2m barrels per
day in February, making it one of the
30 | Lloyd’s List Next Generation 2015 | www.lloydslist.com
