Residential heating oil and propane prices are expected to be higher than last winte

Residential heating oil and propane prices entered the winter heating season higher than last winter’s prices, and EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) forecasts those prices will remain higher through March. More »

Wind turbine heights and capacities have increased over the past decade

Wind turbines in the United States have grown in both average height and capacity over the past decade, according to data on utility-scale electricity generators collected by EIA. Wind turbine capacity is based largely on the length of the blades and taller turbines are able to not only have longer blades, but also take advantage of better wind resources that are available at greater heights. More »

Natural gas production in Bakken region increases at a faster rate than oil production

In North Dakota's Bakken region, the ratio of natural gas production relative to crude oil, known as the gas-oil ratio, has been gradually increasing since 2008 and has increased at a faster rate since 2014. More than 90% of North Dakota's crude oil and natural gas production comes from the Bakken region, which includes the Bakken and Three Forks formations. More »

Biomass and waste fuels made up 2% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2016

Biomass and waste fuels generated 71.4 billion kilowatthours of electricity in 2016, or 2% of total generation in the United States, according to EIA’s recently released annual electric power data. Biomass fuels are defined as all non-fossil, carbon-based (biogenic) energy sources. Waste fuels are defined as all other non-biogenic wastes. More »

U.S. average gasoline prices this Thanksgiving are higher than the previous two years

Heading into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, U.S. retail regular-grade gasoline averaged $2.57 per gallon (gal), up 41 cents/gal from the same time last year. Although gasoline prices are higher than in both 2015 and 2016, the Thanksgiving 2017 gasoline price is still the third-lowest since 2008. More »

Natural gas inventories end October just below the previous five-year average

Working natural gas in storage in the Lower 48 states as of October 31, 2017, totaled 3,784 billion cubic feet (Bcf), as interpolated from EIA's Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report data. Natural gas storage levels typically increase from April through October, although net injections sometimes occur in November. More »

Link between growth in economic activity and electricity use is changing around the world

Growth in economic activity (measured as gross domestic product) has tended historically to be coupled with increases in electricity use as populations grow and generate more goods and services. However, more recently this relationship has been decoupling in many countries. More »

Decommissioning nuclear reactors is a long-term and costly process

Since 2013, six commercial nuclear reactors in the United States have shut down, and an additional eight reactors have announced plans to retire by 2025. The retirement process for nuclear power plants involves disposing of nuclear waste and decontaminating equipment and facilities to reduce residual radioactivity, making it much more expensive and time consuming than retiring other power plants. More »

Growth in global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions expected to slow

EIA projects that growth in global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy-related sources will slow despite increasing energy consumption. EIA's International Energy Outlook 2017 (IEO2017) Reference case projects that energy-related CO2 emissions will grow 0.6% per year from 2015 to 2040, a slower rate of growth than the 1.8% per year experienced from 1990 to 2015. More »

Transportation constraints and export costs widen the Brent-WTI crude oil price spread

In its November Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA forecasts the price difference between West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil priced at Cushing, Oklahoma, and Brent, the global crude oil price benchmark, to remain at $6 per barrel (b) through the first quarter of 2018 before narrowing to $4/b during the second half of 2018. More »

Russia exports most of its crude oil production, mainly to Europe

Russia exported more than 5.2 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil and condensate and more than 2.4 million b/d of petroleum products in 2016, mostly to countries in Europe. Exports of crude oil and petroleum products represented nearly 70% of total Russian petroleum liquids production in 2016. More »

CO2 emissions from coal fell by record amount in 2015, led by Texas and Midwest

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with coal consumption in the United States fell by a record 231 million metric tons in 2015. More than 60% of the annual decrease occurred in 10 states, led by Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, according to EIA’s state-level carbon dioxide emissions data. More »

Coal stockpiles at U.S. coal power plants have fallen since last year

In August 2017, coal stockpiles at electric power plants were 144 million tons, the lowest monthly level since late 2014, according to EIA’s Electric Power Monthly. Coal stockpiles at U.S. coal-fired power plants typically follow a seasonal pattern of increasing during the spring and fall, when electricity demand is relatively low, and decreasing during the summer and winter, when electricity demand is relatively high. More »

EIA forecasts growth in world nuclear electricity capacity, led by non-OECD countries

EIA’s International Energy Outlook 2017 (IEO2017) projects that global nuclear capacity will grow at an average annual rate of 1.6% from 2016 through 2040, led predominantly by countries outside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). EIA expects China to continue leading world nuclear growth, followed by India. More »

More U.S. distillate is being exported

U.S. distillate exports have continued to increase in 2017, both in volume and as a share of total distillate production. Domestic distillate demand has remained relatively stable, increasing slightly from January through July 2017. More »

Repowering wind turbines adds generating capacity at existing sites

Repowering older wind turbines, which involves replacing aging turbines or components, is becoming more common in the United States as the turbine fleet ages and as wind turbine technology advances. Newer turbines tend to be larger and installed at greater heights, allowing for more capacity per turbine. More »

Growth in plug-in electric vehicles depends on future market conditions

Cumulative sales of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), including battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, reached 1.2 million worldwide in 2015. Still, PEVs account for less than 1% of vehicles in use globally. Future developments in battery technology, policy, and consumer preference have important implications for future PEV adoption and serve as a great source of uncertainty in meeting future mobility demand. More »

Almost 40% of global liquefied natural gas trade moves through the South China Sea

The South China Sea is a major route for liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, and in 2016, almost 40% of global LNG trade, or about 4.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), passed through the South China Sea. More »

Widening Brent-WTI price spread unlikely to change East Coast crude oil supply

In September and October 2017, the difference between domestic and foreign crude oil prices has risen to the highest level since 2015. In the past, price differences between West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude oil led to changes in crude oil supply for petroleum refineries in the U.S. East Coast region. More »