Increased refinery runs—based on increases in both capacity and utilization—have helped accommodate increases in U.S. crude oil production. The United States' capacity to refine crude oil into petroleum products—measured as operable atmospheric crude distillation unit capacity—increased by 0.2% in 2014, reaching 18.0 million barrels per calendar day, according to EIA's recently released annual Refinery Capacity Report. Original link

In early April this year, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany reached a framework agreement to guide negotiations targeting a comprehensive agreement by June 30. The comprehensive agreement could result in the lifting of crude oil-related sanctions against Iran, which in turn could result in an increase in Iran's crude oil production and exports. However, the ultimate decision and the timing that sanctions could be lifted are highly uncertain Original link

Employment in oil and natural gas extraction and support activities in the United States reached nearly 538,000 in October 2014, but then declined by about 35,000 jobs, or 6.5%, over the following six months, through April 2015, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Original link

In recent years, higher domestic production of light, tight crude oil has led to a reduction in crude oil imports. Certain types of crude oil have been affected more than others; for example, the increased economic availability of domestic light, tight crude oil has virtually eliminated Gulf Coast imports of light crude oil. In the past year, Gulf Coast imports of medium crude oil have also fallen because of increased production from the Eagle Ford, Bakken, and Permian regions. Original link

EIA's analysis of the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Clean Power Plan shows that renewables play a critical role under a range of different market conditions and policy assumptions. The key difference across the scenarios analyzed involves the timing and extent that wind and solar electric generating capacity additions occur, as well as retirements of some generation capacity, mainly coal-fired units and relatively inefficient plants that use natural gas or oil-fired boilers to run steam turbines. Original link

U.S. crude oil production has grown rapidly in recent years, primarily from light, sweet crude (less dense, lower sulfur content) from tight resource formations. Roughly 90% of the nearly 3.0 million barrel per day (b/d) growth in production from 2011 to 2014 consisted of light, sweet grades, meaning they have an API gravity of 40 or above and a sulphur content of 0.3% or less. Original link

When power plants are built, several factors influence the choice of fuels and technologies that will ultimately generate electricity. Cost is one of the most difficult factors to compare, as technologies can have vastly different capital, fuel, maintenance, and financing costs, as well as different utilization rates and access to fuel resources. Two measures, the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and the levelized avoided cost of electricity (LACE), are widely used to make cost comparisons across technologies. Original link

The crude oil adjustment is perhaps the most frequently misunderstood component of the U.S. crude oil balance published in EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report. This adjustment reflects the combined uncertainty around each of the crude oil data elements that EIA uses to assess the balance between U.S. crude oil supply and its disposition. Original link

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) will hold its 2015 Energy Conference on June 15 and 16 in Washington, DC. This two-day event provides the opportunity to meet and network with energy analysts, decision makers, and EIA staff. Last year more than 900 people from industry, government, and academia attended EIA's conference. Original link

Industrial sector energy consumption is expected to grow faster than all other sectors, according to EIA's Annual Energy Outlook 2015. A large portion of both consumption and anticipated growth is in the bulk chemical industry, which is able to take advantage of increased domestic supply of natural gas, hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL), and petrochemical feedstocks. Original link