U.S. oil boom divides OPEC

Marketwatch ^ | May 28, 2013, 7:06 a.m. EDT | By Benoit Faucon, Sarah Kent and Hassan Hafidh

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Rising American output of shale oil is rewriting global trade patterns and deepening fault lines within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, limiting its ability to mount a collective response. A crucial OPEC meeting in Vienna on Friday will mark the first stage of a debate on shale’s oil’s impact.

The meeting is unlikely to lead to a change in production levels, several OPEC delegates said — but inaction would set the stage for a future showdown. “We are heading toward some problems,” a delegate from a Persian Gulf OPEC member said.

Oil output from the U.S. and Canada is set to rise about 21% from this year to 2018, according to data from the International Energy Agency, largely a result of growing production from fracking and other technologies that access once-inaccessible reserves.

African OPEC members such as Algeria and Nigeria — which produce oil of similar grade to shale oil — are suffering the worst effects from the North American oil boom; Nigeria oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke deemed U.S. shale oil a “grave concern.”

[thackney]

The 1 million barrels Marathon borrowed last year has been replaced, but the previous 2011 sale of oil (30 million) has not.

U.S. Ending Stocks of Crude Oil in SPR
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCSSTUS1&f=M

STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE
http://energy.gov/fe/services/petroleum-reserves/strategic-petroleum-reserve

[1010RD]

Mirrors their words exactly. It looks like an economy that is booming in certain markets and among crony markets (rhymes with phony) being goosed by the government.

The feedback I get from clients and suppliers along with other businesses is their orders are up and down. Some have seen their best year in a decade, while others their worst.