US Surpasses Saudi In Crude Oil, Liquids Recoverable Reserves; Britain's Energy Needs At A Crossroads -- June 20, 2017

Britain's reliance on imported gas to jump; giant storage site axed -- Reuters. Data points:

• Rough facility
• Britain will lose its largest natural gas storage site
• with closure of Rough, Britain loses about 70% of its storage capacity
• reliance on imported natural gas will increase
• wholesale gas prices will become more volatile; more vulnerable to price spikes
• Britain already imports half its natural gas from Norway, continental Europe, Qatar (LNG)
• winter requirements particularly noteworthy; Rough provided 10% of Britain's peak winter demand
• European utilities are losing billions of euros on gas storage, triggering site closures, and divestments

Australian shortage? Can Elon Musk help? Australia will restrict natural gas exports due to domestic shortage. Say what? PennEnergy, data points:

• restrictions to begin next year
• will take action in an effort to contain soaring energy prices in the domestic market
• Australia is about to overtake Qatar as the world's largest exporter of LNG
• problem: no new coal-fired power stations are being built to replace aging generators that will soon be decommissioned
• "...Australia will not tolerate customers in Japan paying less for Australian gas than some Australian businesses are charged." -- Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
• regulations will be issued July 1, 2017; constraints take effect, January 1, 2018
• political divide is likely contributing to the problem
• Elon Musk has said he could solve the problem in 100 days if Australia requested his help
• see also this post, April 20, 2017 
• see also this post, March 10, 2017
• see also this post, also on March 10, 2017

Saudi Arabia's reserves grow, from Platts, data points:

• due to the kingdom lowering tax rates for state producer Saudi Aramco
• recoverable oil resources grew by 73 billion bbls this year
• the new number: 276 billion bbls in reserves
• Saudi re-claims the global top spot for oil resources
• tax rate for Saudi Aramco cut to 50% from 85% as part of moves to attract private investors ahead of the planned IPO in 2018
• only other countries to increase their reserves last year were Kazakhstan and the US
• US: the increase was 13 billion bbls; new total: 263 billion bbls (in same ballpark as Saudi Arabia)
• if NGLs were included in the total, the US would surpass Saudi Arabia by 50 billion bbls
• globally: world's total recoverable resources have rise 29 billion bbls since 2016; total stands at 2.2 trillion bbls now; or 73x the current annual production rate
• as much as 40% of the recoverable oil requires oil prices higher than $80/bbl

ND rigs: at $43, the number of active rigs in ND may decrease; pace of rig count growth may slow in the Permian; other issues -- Chron.