EIA Reports Unexpected Rise in Oil Reserves for Public U.S. Companies

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Monday that publicly traded oil and gas companies saw an increase in proved reserves for last year of an additional 2 billion barrels, despite rising costs of exploration and development in North America and Latin America. 

According to the EIA analysis, there was a 1% increase in proved reserves for 175 publicly traded companies in 2023. 

In a cautionary note, the EIA said that its analysis was based on filings from the publicly traded companies in question, which it estimates represented approximately 50% of all non-OPEC oil output last year. The data does not include privately held producers. 

The boost in proved reserves is being aided by advances in recovery, project expansions and new discoveries, along with some upward revisions of earlier production capacity data. 

At the same time, the EIA noted that costs are rising for exploration and development, estimating that it is now approximately 20% more expensive for U.S. companies to increase reserves, and 10% more expensive for Canadian companies. 

Also on Monday, the EIA released its short-term energy outlook (STEO), forecasting a 1.1-million bpd rise in global consumption of liquid fuels this year, and a 1.6-million bpd rise next year. In total, the EIA forecasts that consumption of petroleum and other liquid fuels will hit 102.94 million bpd this year, and 104.55 million bpd in 2025. This compares to 2023 total consumption of 101.80 million bpd. Of that forecasted 2024 total, the U.S. is set to account for 20.45 million bpd, followed by China, with 16.34 million bpd. 

OPEC also released its revised global oil demand growth forecast for 2024, adjusting it to 1.78 million barrels per day, down from 1.85 million bpd projected previously. OPEC now expects global oil demand growth for this year to average 104.32 million bpd. For 2025, OPEC has also lowered its projections to 2.11 million bpd, down from 2.25 million bpd in its previous report. 

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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