Crude Awakenings

Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees
--Midnight Oil

A few rules of thumb when trying to make sense of the current crude oil supply/demand landscape (in millions of barrels per day).

World supply = 85
World demand = 87 (world demand currently outstrips supply by 2 MBPD)

US supply = 7 (US produces about 1/3 of what it consumes)
US demand = 21 (US consumes roughly 25% of world production)

China demand = 7.5 (about 1/3 of US demand but growing @ 3x US rate)

OPEC supply = 30 (about 35% of world supply)

At current production levels, the world consumes about 31 billion barrels/yr.

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