Howdy folks! All of us down here at Texas Flange are hopin' y'all are havin' a mighty fine holiday season. I tell you what, 2019 has been one heck of a big year for the oil business. In this here blog, we're fixin' to look back at a few big events happenin' 'round the world and how they've been affectin' our whole industry.
Oil & Gas Production Goin' Up
In our January 2019 Blog, we shared the news 'bout a record high in United States Oil and Natural Gas Production. We hit 'bout 11.54 million barrels per day (bpd), and we ain't seen numbers like dat since the 1970s! Back in April, dat EIA announced we hit a jaw-droppin' 12.2 million bpd! And they reckon there's a mighty good chance we'll be hittin' 13.39 million bpd real soon, which is an even bigger jump than they guessed earlier in the year.
Trouble Down in Venezuela
Venezuela, bein' one of the foundin' members of OPEC, has always had a heavy hand in the Oil Industry. Today, Venezuela's sittin' on the biggest proven oil reserve at 303.2 billion barrels. (Dat's near 'bout 18% of the whole world's reserves). But on account of folks mishandlin' the money, Venezuela’s refineries and diggin' tools done got old and rusty, forcin' the country to drop their production by 22% over the past five years. (Dat's 2.1 million bpd).
Things got mighty ugly as their government near 'bout collapsed this year. Even though they're tryin' to get things steadied out, all dat political fussin' inside and outside the country is likely gonna slow things down even more.
Dat whole mess in Venezuela has just been draggin' down an oil industry dat was already limpin' along. Folks was hopin' Saudi Arabia could bump up their production to cover the losses from all dat trouble.
Dem Saudi Aramco Attacks
Now, them of y'all who remember the events of September can probably see where this is headin'... on September 14th of this year, somebody went and attacked a Saudi Aramco facility over in Saudi Arabia. Dat attack knocked out 'bout 5.7 million bpd; dat's near five percent of the whole world's oil supply. Even though dem Houthi rebels claimed they did it, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed the finger at Iran, but they swore up and down it wasn't them. No matter who done it, it was a mighty heavy blow to the global oil supply, I tell you what.
Since then, they got dat facility patched up and bumped production back up to make up for what was lost in the attack. The attack made output drop down to 'bout 8.7 million bpd. But Aramco made up for it by October, pumpin' out 'bout 9.9 million bpd.
There's still a whole heap of hurdles standin' in the industry's way. With all the mess happenin' 'cross the world, “profit” should've been a word nobody even thought 'bout usin' in the Oil Industry. Venezuela fallin' apart should've crippled the business, causin' big deficits and forcin' us to dip into our reserves, but it didn’t. Dat attack on Saudi Arabia should've messed up the market for months on end, but it didn’t. This year should've been a dark cloud over the economy, but it wasn’t. This year, even with ever' setback, ever' mess, and ever' crippling event, we still managed to set a record for production! We couldn’t be no prouder of this industry we got the privilege to be a part of.
We're hopin' this year's been as good to y'all as it's been to us, and we can’t wait to get to workin' with you again in 2020. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and y'all stay tuned for our first blog of the new decade come January.
