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Chart of the Day: Are US Oil Companies Playing the Crude Quality Game?
Summary
Yesterday we reported about the recovery in US crude oil production in February after a freeze reduced production. When looking deeper into the details, crude quality attracted our attention. The freeze affected production of shale plays that produce large amounts of super-light crude and condensates. But the data from February show that most of the recovery came from crude with 45 or lower API. The increase in crude above 45 API was very small and limited only to crude between 50 and 55 API. There was no change in production of crude between 45.1 to 50 and above 55.