The Big Picture; Saudi Vs US Petroleum Product Production -- September 30, 2014

For those interested in the "big picture" with regard to global oil production, you really have to look at the Mark Perry graph at this post (no longer available). Here is another link: https://www.uschamber.com/blog/shale-boom-makes-united-states-world-s-top-petroleum-producer with screen shot below.

Again, some of us see so many graphs day in and day out, our eyes glaze over when we see yet another graph. But take a look at that graph: it is quite stunning.

Between 2010 and 2013, both the "red" line and the "blue" line were increasing significantly. The western economy wasn't doing all that great during that period so one assumes the production increase was a reflection of the economic activity in China and/or the loss of production of petroleum products elsewhere (Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Russia, etc) and Saudi and the US were making up the difference.

The second thing one notices that Saudi production is once again leveling off or dropping back to its 2011 production numbers. Compared to 2006, there has now been a 4.8 million bopd swing between the US and Saudi Arabia; and where the gap in 2006 was starting to narrow, all indications are the gap that we now see (in 2014, 2.4 million bopd) will continue to widen.