unbelievable, but the fact. Despite the Western sanctions regime, Russia becomes the second largest exporter of oil and fuel oil to the United States. American refineries are happy to buy raw materials from our country, getting deeper and deeper on the "oil hook". Sounds pretty strange, if consider, that the United States is itself a major exporter of "black gold", but the reality is, that their economy will increasingly depend on Russia. How did it happen, and who is to blame?
Since before the start of the "shale revolution" the United States was an importer of hydrocarbons, it is necessary to say a few words about, what happened to their main suppliers.
Iran and Venezuela
We deliberately combined these two countries into one point, as they both became victims of Washington's sanctions policy. For half a century, Caracas was the main supplier of oil to American refineries, located on the Gulf Coast. Most of these refineries are technically tailored for the processing of heavy sour oil., typical for the fields of Venezuela and Iran. However, 2019 year, President Donald Trump took the path of toughening the sanctions policy against the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, prohibiting any financial transactions with Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Also, the White House unilaterally withdrew from the "nuclear deal" with Iran and returned restrictive measures against Tehran., thereby Washington managed to create big problems for the economies of Venezuela and the Islamic Republic, but not only to them. At the same time, President Trump punished his own refiners.. It turned out to be problematic to replace the lost volumes of very specific raw materials with an American refinery..
Canada
Another "victim of circumstance" was the northern neighbor of the United States. Due to its convenient geographic location and wealth of natural resources, Canada is the largest exporter of oil to the American market.. However, several factors played against her at once., which somewhat shaken her usual position. At first, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the volume of demand for hydrocarbons in the United States in 2020 year fell sharply, and with them - and production volumes. Secondly, the growing popularity of the "green agenda" began to exert serious pressure on Canada. This is not a joke. On the one hand, barely coming to power, New US President Joe Biden Cancels Construction Permit For Keystone XL Oil Pipeline (KXL), which was supposed to throw over 830 thousand barrels from oil fields in Canada to Nebraska, and from there to the Gulf Coast. On the other hand, Ottawa itself began to move towards greening its economy. As the leading Western powers, Canadian authorities have prepared a roadmap for the transition to renewable energy by 2050 year. The Hydrogen Strategy for Canada has already been published, CO2 capture projects are underway, investments in renewable energy, power grids are being modernized. Planned annual increase in taxes on carbon dioxide emissions from production, which from $ 40 / t in 2021 by 2030 will grow to $ 170 / t. In this way, the USA is changing, and with them Canada changes.
Mexico
Southern neighbor of the United States, Mexico, may be, and would like to upgrade like that, but is traditionally in the position of a "poor relative", supplying natural resources and cheap labor to the American market. How does it sometimes happen, a country's wealth in oil and gas does not necessarily mean a high standard of living for its population. And then there were various misfortunes.. This and the coronavirus pandemic, which hit all countries without exception, and reduced consumption of hydrocarbons in the main sales market in the United States, and the recent accident at the Ku-Alfa platform of the Ku-Maloob-Zaap production complex in the Gulf of Mexico. Due to fire and explosion on the Pemex platform, located in the largest field, were de-energized immediately 125 wells. By coincidence, The emergency happened exactly at that complex, which provided them all with electricity. The fire was caused by an oil leak from a control valve on a subsea pipeline.. This incident led to a significant reduction in the extraction and export of raw materials.. However, the problems of Mexico did not stop there.. Oil production in the Gulf was also negatively affected by the powerful Hurricane Ida.
USA
Ironically, no one has done so much damage to the American oil industry, how much are the authorities of this country. First, President Donald Trump "imposed sanctions" on his own refineries, depriving them of raw materials from Venezuela and Iran. Then his successor Joe Biden, among the first measures he took, banned the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada, as well as the development of new deposits in the federal lands. And it would be all right all this, which, if desired, can be attributed to the costs of the internal political struggle between the Republican and Democratic parties and their sponsors. The White House staked on "green" and now began to stifle its own oil production.. Benefits and subsidies began to be canceled, increase taxes, in a "voluntary-compulsory" manner, new environmental standards for harmful emissions into the atmosphere are being introduced. The development and production of "light and sweet" American oil is gradually becoming less and less attractive, what we are told in detail previously. However ecology ecology, but cars need to be refueled with something every day, so the US turned to the country rather unexpectedly, designated as a "threat to national security", Russia.
Russia
It just so happened, what we have is, what do americans need. Due to the peculiarities of the technology of domestic oil refining, as a result, there is a lot of "residual liquid fuel", simply put, fuel oil. Russia owns the world share of the order 20% from this type of dark oil products. It turned, that it is enough to mix Russian fuel oil with light shale oil in a certain proportion, to obtain almost ideal feedstock for refineries. AT 2020 year within Russia itself, the consumption of fuel oil amounted to 10,5 million tons, and in the USA - 10,9 This is how our country became the largest supplier of sulfurous fuel oil in the United States and the second largest exporter in the American market.. In such quantities, in the absence of Venezuela and Iran, no one else can offer it. It turns out, what, if Joe Biden's team really ditches the internal production of their shale oil, then American cars will run on gasoline, made mainly from Russian oil.
Sergey Marzhetsky
