The Oil Shock Model and Compartmental Models

The coronavirus pandemic and the global oil economy

Chapter 5 of our book Mathematical Geoenergy describes a model of the production of oil based on discoveries followed by a sequence of lags relating to decisions made and physical constraints governing the flow of that oil. As it turns out, this so-named Oil Shock Model is mathematically similar to the compartmental models used to model contagion growth in epidemiology, pharmaceutical/drug deliver systems, and other applications as demonstrated in Appendix E of the book.

One aspect of the 2020 pandemic is that everyone with any math acumen is becoming aware of contagion models such as the SIR compartmental model, where S I R stands for Susceptible, Infectious, and Recovered individuals. The Infectious part of the time progression within a population resembles a bell curve that peaks at a particular point indicating maximum contagiousness. The hope is that this either peaks quickly or that it doesn’t peak at too high a level.

Read More

USA December Oil Production Drops

A Post by Ovi at peakoilbarrel

All of the oil production data for the US states comes from the EIAʼs Petroleum Supply Monthly.   At the end, an analysis of a three different EIA reports is provided.

The charts below are updated to December 2019 for the 10 largest US oil producing states (Production > 100 kb/d).

The data from the February EIA report shows that US production dropped from November by 84 kb/d (0.61 kb/d) to 12,779 kb/d in December. Since June, the US has increased output by an average of 164 kb/d/mth. Is this drop the beginnings of slowing LTO growth going into 2020? Today’s low oil prices are not providing any incentive to increase drilling activity. Maintaining current production and lowering expenses may be the new mantra.

For the lower 48 states, production decreased by 81 kb/d.

Read More

Non-OPEC Output Reaches New High

Below are a number of oil (C + C ) production charts for Non-OPEC countries created from data provided by the EIA’s International Energy Statistics and updated to October 2019.  Information from other sources such as the IEA and OPEC is used to provide a short term outlook for future output and direction.

Non-OPEC production increased by 382 kb/d to 50,930 kb/d in October from 50,512 kb/d in September. This is second highest monthly increase for 2019 after the August increase of 699 kb/d.

October’s production exceeded the previous high of 50,919 kb/d reached in December 2018 by 11 kb/d. Gains from Norway, U.S, and Canada overcame declines from other countries to post the new October record.

Contrast what has happened with output in 2019 with 2018.  From December 2017 to December 2018, production increased from 47,768 kb/d to 50,919 kb/d, an increase of 3,151 kb/d. Of this, the three largest contributors were U.S., Russia, and Canada.  From December 2018 to October 2019, production so far has increased by 11 kb/d. How much will the next two months add?

Read More

US Production Growth Surges

A Post by Ovi at peakoilbarrel

All of the oil production data for the US states comes from the EIAʼs Petroleum Supply Monthly. In addition, information from other EIA offices is provided to project future US output. At the end, an analysis of a few different EIA reports is undertaken.

The charts below are updated to November 2019 for the 10 largest US oil producing states (>100 kb/d).

The latest data from the January EIA report shows that US production surged by 203 kb/d in November to reach a new high of 12,879 kb/d. Since June the US has increased output by an average of 164 kb/d/mth. Looking forward to December production, the January Monthly Energy Review (MER) estimates US production for December to be 12,861 kb/d, down 14 kb/d from November and shown in red as the last data point.

If the MER is correct for December at 12,861 kb/d, that means that the January 2020 STEO is too high in their output prediction. They estimate December output to be 12,967 kb/d, 106 kb/d too high.

Read More