Weekly Energy Charts
March 20, 2023
Featured Stories
Recycling Drilling Waste
Kayla Layden
Since November 2021, Recover Energy Services Inc. has been reducing drilling waste by extracting base oil from drilling mud at its facility in Brazeau County, southwest of Edmonton.
Each new oil well creates about 500 metric tons of drilling waste which is typically mixed with sawdust and sent to a class II landfill, where it takes years to break down. Recover Energy, however, uses hexane to extract base oil from the waste. Once this process is complete, a much smaller quantity of waste is sent to a landfill. The hexane can be recovered and reused, making the process even cleaner. The extracted base oil is also valuable; it is sold to companies that use it to produce more drilling mud. Theoretically, the base oil could also be further refined into diesel.
So far, Recover Energy has accepted 2,000 loads of waste and produced 40,000 barrels of base oil. The company says it has averted up to 68,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions by diverting waste normally sent to landfills. According to the U.S. EPA, this is equivalent to taking approximately 14,000 cars off of the road for a year.
Looking to the future, more than 20 locations throughout North America have been identified by the company as potential expansion sites.
Further projected increases in USA battery capacity
Yousaff Habib
In my last chart, I wrote about the massive increase in battery capacity in the United States over the last year. This trend seems as though it will continue, as the United States is expected to significantly increase its energy storage capacity over the next five years, with an estimated 75 GW of battery energy storage to be added across all sectors by 2027. This projection comes from a report by the American Clean Power Association and Wood Mackenzie.
The report states that renewable energy and energy storage are responsible for over 82% of planned capacity additions in the US, with solar accounting for more than 50% of all planned generation capacity. Energy storage has seen considerable growth in recent years, with 4.8 GW / 12.1 GWh of storage capacity added in 2022 alone, nearly equaling the combined totals of 2020 and 2021.
Source: Wood Mackenzie
However, in late 2022, the deployment of energy storage slowed due to supply chain and interconnection constraints, resulting in over 3 GW of projects being delayed or cancelled. While utility-scale storage slowed, residential battery adoption continued to rise, growing by 11% in Q4 2022. The report predicts that the US will add approximately 75 GW of storage capacity between 2023 and 2027, with grid-scale installations accounting for 81% of new capacity.
Source: Wood Mackenzie
Price relief for batteries is expected as commodity prices decline, but supply delays and a tight labor market may continue to present challenges this year. Despite these challenges, the report suggests that energy storage is already a key component of building a resilient grid that supports abundant clean energy.
You can find the report, which has a more in depth analysis and more charts here. A must read if you’re interested in the deployment of solar capacity especially.
Oil
Weekly Crude Prices
Feature Crude
Alberta Crude
Alberta Crude (Short)
US Crude
Global Crude
Oil Price Differentials
Brent-WTI
WTI-WCS
WTI-WCS (Short)
Maya-WCS
Brent-Urals
Forward Curves
WTI
Brent
Canadian Crude Supply and Disposition
Canadian Production
Alberta Production
Imports
Exports
Exports by Rail
US Oil
Production
LTO Production by Play
Net Imports
Oil and Product Net Imports
Inventories
EIA STEO Forecasts
Refined Products
Canadian Gasoline Prices
Map
Historic Gasoline Prices
Historic Diesel Prices
Canadian Refinery Runs
Canadian Refinery Runs
Western Canada Refinery Runs
Natural Gas
Natural Gas Market Summary
Feature Gas
Feature Gas (Short)
Global Gas
Global Gas (short)
North American Gas Hubs
Forward Prices
Henry Hub
Alberta (NIT) ($CAD)
Alberta (NIT)
BC (Stn 2)
Ontario (Dawn)
US Natural Gas
Shale Gas Production
Storage
Power
AESO Market Summary
Supply Mix
Prices and Loads
AESO Forward Prices
Renewable Supply
Wind Forecast
Solar Forecast
