MOSCOW (MRC) -- More petroleum and natural gas was produced in the United States than in any other country during 2020 (a trend that began in 2014), despite year-on-year declines from the record-high production in 2019, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
US petroleum and natural gas output in 2020 totaled 66.9 quadrillion British thermal units (quads), which was more than both Russia’s 45.5 quads and Saudi Arabia’s 26.5 quads of petroleum and natural gas production.
Petroleum and natural gas production fell in all three countries in 2020 following a rapid decline in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent crude oil price declines, particularly in the first quarter of 2020. Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to reduce their crude oil production as part of an OPEC+ agreement, but in the United States, reduced production was largely the result of a price-induced fall in tight oil investments and, to a lesser extent, unplanned outages.
Petroleum production includes several types of liquid fuels, including crude oil and lease condensate, natural gas plant liquids (NGPL), and bitumen. US petroleum production decreased from 31.8 quads in 2019 to 30.4 quads in 2020. Crude oil and condensate accounted for the largest share of the decrease, at 1.9 quads. In contrast, NGPL production in 2020 grew by 0.4 quads, boosted by an increase in domestic ethane consumption and in ethane exports.
COVID-19-driven decreases in demand affected natural gas production far less. In Russia, natural gas production fell in response to milder-than-normal temperatures during the 2020–2021 winter and to increases in renewable electricity generation in the EU. Natural gas production in Russia fell by 2.1 quads, nearly equal to its decline of 2.3 quads in oil production.
As MRC wrote previously, US crude oil production is expected to fall by 290,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.02 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in May, 2021, a steeper decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 270,000 bpd. US oil producers have been gradually increasing drilling activity as oil prices have rebounded but output growth has been muted as investors pressure companies to rein in spending and focus on returns. In 2022, output is expected to rise by 820,000 bpd to 11.84 million bpd, unchanged from the EIA's estimate in April.
We remind that in May, 2021, Marathon Petroleum Corp, the largest US refiner, said its board had approved the conversion of the Martinez refinery in California to a renewable diesel plant. Besides, the company made a final investment decision regarding this project. Martinez, once complete, will be one of the largest renewables facilities in the country.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC