Warehouses were the most common U.S. commercial building type as of 2018

As of 2018, warehouse and storage buildings were the most common type of commercial building in the country, according to our most recent Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). Our most recent CBECS was released in September 2021 and was based on buildings characteristics as of 2018. We estimate that the United States had just over 1 million warehouse and storage buildings as of 2018 and a total floorspace of 17.4 million square feet. This survey marks the first time since CBECS was released in 1979 that warehouse and storage buildings were the most common building type, ranked by both number of buildings and by total square footage. More »

Recent legislation would reduce the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve

On Tuesday, November 23, the White House announced plans to make 50 million barrels of crude oil available to the market through a combination of exchanges and accelerating previously announced sales. With these sales and several other legislated drawdowns, SPR inventories could decline from 618 million barrels (as of October 1, 2021) to about 314 million barrels by the start of the 2032 fiscal year, the lowest level since March 1983. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed earlier this month, includes a provision to draw down 87.6 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in fiscal years (FY) 2028 through 2031. More »

Average U.S. gasoline prices are higher this Thanksgiving than any since 2012

The average price that consumers paid at the pump for U.S. regular gasoline on the Monday before Thanksgiving this year was $3.40 per gallon (gal). This price is $1.29/gal (62%) higher than last year and is the highest pre-Thanksgiving price since 2012 (in nominal terms), according to our latest Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update. U.S. gasoline prices are 82 cents/gal (32%) higher than at the same time in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. October 2021 saw the largest recorded year-over-year increase in gasoline prices, at $1.13/gal, since we began collecting gasoline prices in 1990. More »

Major U.S. utilities spending more on electricity delivery, less on power production

Over the past decade, major utilities in the United States have been spending more on delivering electricity to customers and less on producing that electricity. More »

Average U.S. gasoline prices are higher this Thanksgiving than any since 2012

The average price that consumers paid at the pump for U.S. regular gasoline on the Monday before Thanksgiving this year was $3.40 per gallon (gal). This price is $1.29/gal (62%) higher than last year and is the highest pre-Thanksgiving price since 2012 (in nominal terms), according to our latest Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update. U.S. gasoline prices are 82 cents/gal (32%) higher than at the same time in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. October 2021 saw the largest recorded year-over-year increase in gasoline prices, at $1.13/gal, since we began collecting gasoline prices in 1990. More »

Major U.S. utilities spending more on electricity delivery, less on power production

Over the past decade, major utilities in the United States have been spending more on delivering electricity to customers and less on producing that electricity. More »

Most planned U.S. natural gas-fired plants near Appalachia, Florida, and Texas

Between 2022 and 2025, 27.3 gigawatts (GW) of new natural gas-fired capacity is scheduled to come online in the United States, according to our latest Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. This added capacity would increase current capacity (489.1 GW as of August 2021) by 6%. Many of the planned natural gas-fired capacity additions are located close to major shale plays in the Appalachia region, in Texas, and in Florida. More »

EIA expands data coverage of biofuels in our Monthly Energy Review

In October 2021, we began publishing expanded data on biofuels other than ethanol in our Monthly Energy Review (MER), including production, imports, feedstocks, and consumption. The expanded biofuels data provide a more detailed look at fuels previously grouped under renewable fuels except ethanol, which is now split into biodiesel, renewable diesel, and other biofuels. More »

EIA forecasts crude oil prices will decline during 2022

Since the third quarter of 2020, global consumption of crude oil and petroleum products has increased faster than production, which has caused lower inventory levels and higher crude oil prices. In our November Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), we forecast that rising production from OPEC+ countries and the United States will lead to global liquid fuels inventories increasing and crude oil prices falling in 2022. More »

New natural gas pipeline capacity expands access to export and Northeast markets

In our recently updated Natural Gas Pipeline Projects Tracker, we estimate over 4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of new natural gas pipeline capacity entered service in the third quarter of 2021, primarily supplying Gulf Coast and Northeast demand markets. More »

Solar generation was 3% of U.S. electricity in 2020, but we project it will be 20% by 2050

According to our Electric Power Annual, solar power accounted for 3% of U.S. electricity generation from all sources in 2020. In our Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast that solar will account for 4% of U.S. electricity generation in 2021 and 5% in 2022. In our Annual Energy Outlook 2021 (AEO2021) Reference case, which assumes no change in current laws and regulations, we project that solar generation will make up 14% of the U.S. total in 2035 and 20% in 2050. These data include electricity generated from both utility-scale (those of 1 megawatt or more generating capacity) and small-scale (less than 1 megawatt) solar facilities in the electric power, residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. More »

EIA Product Highlight: Southern California Daily Energy Report

We provide daily information on the Southern California energy market in the Southern California Daily Energy Report, which uses several of our data sources as well as third-party information from sources such as the Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More »

U.S. natural gas in storage in early November is 3% below the recent average

As we enter winter, working natural gas in underground storage facilities in the Lower 48 states measured 3,618 billion cubic feet (Bcf) on November 5, according to our Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report released on November 10. The amount of natural gas in storage has been below its previous five-year average since mid-February of this year. Storage levels approached average in late October and early November, the time of year when inventories are typically at their highest and when natural gas begins to be withdrawn as demand rises with colder weather. More »

U.S. electricity customers experienced eight hours of power interruptions in 2020

On average, U.S. electricity customers experienced just over eight hours of electric power interruptions in 2020, the most since we began collecting electricity reliability data in 2013. More »

Crude oil demand returns faster than supply, increasing prices and reducing inventories

The price of U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is near its highest level since 2014, increasing rapidly from low prices in mid-2020. Because of the economic effects, government and business responses, and personal travel changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, demand for crude oil and petroleum products declined rapidly, inventories increased, and prices fell. More »

Despite sanctions, Iran's dry natural gas production grew steadily over the past 20 years

Despite international sanctions, Iran produced 8.4 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of dry natural gas in 2019, making the country the world’s third-largest dry natural gas producer after the United States and Russia. Natural gas production in Iran has grown steadily over the past two decades despite sanctions that affected Iran’s energy exports, financial transactions, and imports of certain technologies. Iran’s domestic natural gas demand, which the sanctions do not affect, has been the main driver of Iran’s natural gas production growth. More »

Use of electricity in houses to grow more quickly in developing economies

In our International Energy Outlook (IEO2021) Reference case, we project that residential buildings outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will consume more electricity than all residential and commercial buildings combined in OECD countries by 2050. However, people in non-OECD countries will, on average, still consume less than half as much residential electricity as in OECD countries. Our Reference case assumes current laws and regulations do not change in the future, and we use it as the basis for examining alternative cases that change these base assumptions. More »

Added transnational oil pipeline capacity could reduce crude oil shipped by rail

The Enbridge Line 3 replacement pipeline, which delivers crude oil from Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada to Superior, Wisconsin, became fully operational on October 1, 2021, increasing the pipeline's capacity to 760,000 barrels per day (b/d). Before the replacement, Enbridge Line 3 had a capacity of about half that amount. Because the Line 3 replacement project increases the capacity to import crude oil by pipeline from Canada, this pipeline could reduce the need to ship crude oil from Canada by other modes, especially rail. More »

Crude oil and petroleum liquids production in Ecuador hit a 10-year low in 2020

In 2020, Ecuador produced 483,000 barrels per day (b/d) of petroleum and petroleum liquids, which is the only year since 2010 that petroleum production fell below half a million b/d, according to the October update of our Country Analysis Brief for Ecuador. Several factors caused this decline. More »

U.S. consumption and production of natural gas decreased while exports grew in 2020

U.S. natural gas production and consumption decreased in 2020 because of mild winter weather and the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on demand, according to our recently released Natural Gas Annual. Less natural gas was consumed in the United States, which pushed prices down; the annual Henry Hub spot price for 2020 averaged $2.03 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), the lowest annual price since 1997. The low prices contributed to record-high levels of natural gas exports and consumption in the electric power sector in 2020. More »