Mel Larson - KBC
The US will produce over 9 MM Bbls/Day on average of crude oil in 2015. In approximately 5 yrs the US production has nearly doubled, or the US is producing oil at the same value as 1985! And the LTO revolution is not over. North America (including Mexico) now has identified reserves of over 280 trillion barrels. This does not include all of the recoverable shale in the US which has been estimated between 1.5 to 2 Trillion barrels. Of the 280 Trillion barrels we know of today, 64% of that is Canadian sourced crude.
So lets first agree and admit that North America has a large reserve of politically stable source crude. Secondly, what is not fully appreciated is that the US shale crudes in many cases are triple plays meaning there is a harvesting of natural gas (NG), natural gas liquids (NGLs) and light sweet crudes with low bottoms contend.
The presentation will touch upon the economics of North American crudes, the known challenges of processing these crudes along with innovative concepts that allow the refinery to maximize profit within the regional supply.