Capitol Crude: The US Energy Policy Podcast

With their output shattering records, US oil producers are flaring an unprecedented amount of unwanted gas. On this week's Platts Capitol Crude, Ali Oktay, a senior pricing specialist with S&P Global Platts, talks about why flaring is increasing in the Permian and Bakken and why...

On today's Platts Capitol Crude, Fernando Ferreira, a senior analyst with Rapidan Energy Group, discusses a new report that forecasts the oil market impact of Iran successfully blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the world's busiest oil chokepoint. Rapidan's report, "Battlespace & Barrel Flow: Oil...

On this week's Platts Capitol Crude, we take a closer look at rising tensions between the US and Iran, tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's dwindling oil exports, and China's future as Iran's top importer. Brian Hook, the US State Department's special representative for Iran, talks about...

The Barrel Brothers are back! US Energy Information Administration petroleum analysts Jeff Barron and Mason Hamilton talk: the price impacts of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery explosion and closure; the state of East Coast gasoline supply and demand; global oil demand; and surprises in...

OPEC, Russia and other producing partners agreed to extend their 1.2 million b/d supply cut agreement for another nine months as Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih outlined OPEC's new role as a reactionary force to US shale growth. On today's Platts Capitol Crude podcast, Herman...

While the peak oil theory is dead, the industry faces a very real prospect of peak demand -- and sooner than you might think. Helen Currie, ConocoPhillips' chief economist, talked with Capitol Crude about where the major US oil producer sees global demand heading. She explains her outlook for US...

After weeks of uncertainty, OPEC and its allies will meet July 1 and 2 in Vienna and the fate of the 1.2 million b/d production cut agreement will be the key item on the agenda. On today's Platts Capitol Crude, Spencer Dale, BP's chief economist, discusses the impact of the OPEC+...

The Trump administration took a message of abundant US energy exports to the G-20 energy meetings in Karuizawa, Japan, over the weekend. We spoke with Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, who represented the US delegation along with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew...

Oil tanker attacks have the International Energy Agency "seriously concerned" about oil supply security, and yet oil demand growth concerns have tempered the price reaction for now. Platts Capitol Crude spoke with IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol on the sidelines of the G-20 energy ministerial...

In the thick of its trade dispute with China, the Trump administration threatened last week to start yet another tariff fight with a major trading partner: Mexico. This one would have hit Gulf Coast refiners hard, potentially making it uneconomical to import the key Maya heavy crude grade. Capitol...

Some view the Trump administration's push to expand offshore oil and gas drilling to most federal waters as a failure. But with plans for oil and gas lease sales for the Atlantic and Arctic on an indefinite hold, amid court battles and leadership changes, the industry continues to push for...

A movement to reduce plastic use has led to bans worldwide on shopping bags, straws and other single-use items, but no noticeable impact on demand for crude oil and other feedstocks used to make plastic. Petrochemical and plastic demand is forecast to increase at as much as four times the rate of...

As tighter US sanctions against Iran continue to change global oil flows, Asian refiners are testing a new grade of lighter crude flowing from the Permian Basin. West Texas Light has an API gravity averaging 48, compared with traditional WTI at 38-44 API. Laura Huchzermeyer, managing editor of...

On this week's podcast we speak with Henry Rome, an Iran analyst with the Eurasia Group, about why the global oil market is not as stable and well-supplied as the Trump administration wants the world to believe. Rome sees a supply crunch only getting worse and a $5/b increase looming ahead...

The US is producing more than twice the oil it was a decade ago, with about a third of the workers needed to do so, according to Jamie Webster, a senior director at the BCG Center for Energy Impact. On this week's Capitol Crude, Webster, also a fellow at Columbia University's Center on...

The Trump administration will not extend its Iran sanctions waivers to China, India and other buyers in an attempt to push Iran exports to zero. But Sara Vakhshouri, president of SVB Energy International, argues on today's Platts Capitol Crude that even with strict US sanctions coming into...

Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman arrived in the US a year ago to help write a new chapter in US-Saudi relations, but following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, have relations been irreparably strained? On this week's Platts Capitol Crude, Matt Reed, vice president of Foreign Reports, says...

A bill in Washington state could shut down 150,000 b/d of Bakken rail traffic through the Pacific Northwest, boost oil imports from Alaska and Asia through Puget Sound and increase North Dakota shipments to the US Gulf Coast. On this week's Capitol Crude, we look at the bill, aimed at...

Nine years ago, President Barack Obama signed a regulation into law requiring oil, gas and mining companies to publicly report all payments made to governments, an effort aimed at curbing decades of corruption, but President Donald Trump has repealed that regulation and the US has since departed a...

A month from now, waivers which have allowed Iran's biggest crude oil and condensate buyers to keep buying Iranian oil are set to expire. Analysts fully expect the administration to extend the waivers, but fissures have emerged within the administration, arguing that the US cannot drive...

On this week's Capitol Crude, Frank Verrastro and Andrew Stanley with the Center for Strategic & International Studies' energy and national security program talk about the state of Venezuela's oil sector, the impact of US sanctions on PDVSA and what recovery might look like....

Platts Capitol Crude was in Houston last week talking with S&P Global editors about three stories shaping the domestic oil market. Laura Huchzermeyer, managing editor, Americas crude, and Catherine Wood, associate editor, Americas dirty tanker markets, talk about skyrocketing US crude exports...

On this special edition of Platts Capitol Crude from CERAWeek by IHS Markit in Houston we're talking about the shifting global flows in crude grades. Demand for heavy crudes, due largely to US sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, is growing as production of light oil reaches historic highs....

On this early edition of Capitol Crude, we predict the top themes of next week's CERAWeek, the mega-conference where US shale producers, US government officials and OPEC ministers rub elbows. We spoke with American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers about surging US oil...

Have record US oil production and crude exports changed the US role in global maritime security? How can oil flows calm the brewing feud between the US and China? Is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz a credible threat? On this week's podcast, Dennis Blair, the former US Director of National...