Good morning, here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• U.S. Oil Exports Hit Record

• Investors Flee Renewables Funds in Droves

• Upcoming Oil and Gas Events

• Tweet of the Day

U.S. Oil Exports Hit Record

Crude oil exports during the first half of the year averaged 4 million barrels daily—a record high.

Our main client was Europe, with the UK and the Netherlands buying the most oil.

From Supplied to Supplier

It took the U.S. less than ten years to turn from an importer-only into an exporter and importer of crude.

We still import more crude than we export, but the gap is narrowing, with imports relatively stable at around 6 million bpd.

Exports, meanwhile, have been booming.

Europe took in some 1.75 million barrels daily of U.S. oil in H1.

Asia also bought a lot, at an average of 1.68 million bpd.

Exports in total added 650,000 bpd in the first half—a pretty healthy growth rate.

Still a net importer

Chances are export growth will continue.

Europe doesn’t really have a lot of options to replace sanctioned Russian oil.

But with output expansion not on the agenda for local producers, the U.S. will likely remain a net importer for the time being.

The reason is our refineries were made to process both light and heavy crude.

But there’s not much heavy crude being produced locally.

So it has to come from Canada, Mexico and, since recently, Venezuela.

Still, rising exports are good news for the industry – more markets is always better than one market.

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Investors Flee Renewables Funds in Droves

Investors are losing their appetite for the energy transition, it seems.

Funds focused on things like wind and solar saw record outflows in the third quarter.

The reason? Low-carbon companies struggled with costs and rates.

The free market has no mercy

Governments in the West have been pouring billions into low-carbon energy.

This drew in many investors, and why wouldn’t it?

If the government is 100% behind an industry, then it must be a winner, right?

Well, wrong, because even with so much support, there are still things like raw material supply to consider.

And the price of that supply.

Which has been going up.

So have interest rates, increasing the debt burden of those low-carbon hopefuls.

Even with massive government support, the free market still rules.

It’s going to get worse

Raw materials are only going to get costlier.

Ironically, it’s government policies that will contribute to this.

The EU, for example, is planning curbs on Chinese steel imports.

Guess which industry needs a lot of steel? Wind.

The Biden admin’s tariffs on Asian solar panels, meanwhile, are crippling local developers.

And the Fed’s interest rate policy is not helping either.

The IRA is still a major motivator for wind and solar investments, but it may soon start losing its appeal.

I mean, it’s one thing to project nice fat profits based on cheap raw materials and subsidies.

Once these stop being cheap, your profit projections take a beating, and subsidies are suddenly not enough.

Who could have guessed it?

Upcoming Oil & Gas Events

• October 16: Fall Classic Golf Tournament, Ratliff Ranch Gold Links, Odessa, TX

• October 16-18: SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, TX

• October 16-18: IOGCC Annual Conference, Park City, UT

• October 17-19: Permian Basin International Oil Show, Odessa TX

• October 19: PIOGA Annual Membership Meeting & Reception, Canonsburg, PA

Around the Global Patch

🇻🇪 Venezuela's dark fleet: Maduro's Iran dependency.
🇨🇳 China's thrifty oil purchases: $10 billion savings.
🇳🇴 Norway boosts energy security amid pipeline suspicions.

Tweet of the Day

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