With 2019 drawing to a close, let’s look at the news stories and events that shaped the year, as chronicled on this site.

Every week, we published a new blog aiming to show how Ursa data can be used to better understand the global oil market.

Below is a sample of the topics covered.

What do you consider the most important US crude oil storage site?

Chances are the site is located on the Gulf Coast, the beating heart of the US oil industry.

The Gulf Coast contains more than half of the country’s refining capacity, making it a huge demand center. The region is also the outlet for US crude exports.

Much of the supply now comes from the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, the biggest driver of US production growth.

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This week OPEC ministers and allies gathered in Vienna to discuss a coordinated production cut agreement set to expire in March.

When news broke Dec 5  that the group (called OPEC+) had decided to deepen the cuts by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), the outcome was both a surprise and expected at the same time.

The world’s top oil exporter will soon sell shares in state-owned Saudi Aramco in what figures to be the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history.

That’s significant because the IPO has forced Aramco to reveal lots of information about the company to potential investors.

On November 9, Saudi Aramco released a prospectus ahead of a planned share offering that could rank as the largest IPO in history.

At 658 pages, the document is a deep dive into Aramco’s corporate structure and physical operations.

What would Aramco disclose about its oilfields? Would we learn anything new about production trends and maximum capacity rates? What about Aramco’s operations abroad?

Are you interested in learning how satellite imagery can be turned into valuable data?

If so, and you’re in Houston on November 13, then please swing by a networking event we’re hosting that evening (details and RSVP here).

The latest pipeline being built to carry crude oil from West Texas to the US Gulf Coast is almost complete, marking another step towards the US becoming a major oil exporter.

The Gray Oak pipeline, with a capacity of 900,000 barrels per day (bpd), has begun to fill with crude and should begin service in November with full service expected to begin early 2020, according to Phillips 66, which owns 42% of the project.

“With the complexity of the

The amount of crude oil China holds in storage became a pertinent question this month when freight rates to Asia reached record highs, discouraging flows on key supply routes from the Middle East and the United States.

Were China’s inventories sufficient to withstand declines in imports? Would refineries have to slow down?

The timing was tough. Storage tanks were already draining before the spike in freight rates.

A team from Ursa traveled to Geneva this week for a global oil conference hosted by Argus. The event draws from the large pool of Geneva-based oil traders, as well as folks from around the world.

There was plenty to discuss. The topics included:

• The September 14th attacks on Saudi Arabia oil infrastructure

• Shipping fuel regulations going into effect next year