Back in August, this blog shortlisted the Permian Basin bottleneck as a candidate for story-of-the-year in the oil market. With 2018 drawing to a close, we think this prediction has held up pretty well.

A major issue lurking in the background came to the fore, which was the pipeline capacity -- or lack thereof -- connecting the Permian with Cushing, Oklahoma and Houston.

In the oil market, no country is an island. A supply disruption one place can have ramifications far away.

Take the recent shutdown of an oilfield in southwestern Libya and why that might matter in Primorsk, Russia or Ceyhan, Turkey.

On December 9, an armed group seized control of the Sharara oilfield (315,000 barrels per day), Libya’s largest.

When the Shanghai International Energy Exchange launched a crude futures contract back in March the oil market kept close tabs on its development.

Would China achieve its goal of establishing the world’s third crude benchmark? The other two being Brent and WTI. Or would the effort fizzle?

This week saw a major storm over the Persian Gulf. Literally. Heavy rains caused flooding in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran.

It seems those dark clouds could also serve as a metaphor. The unusual weather for the region coincided with Washington restoring sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The sanctions cover Iran’s energy, banking, shipping, and shipbuilding industries.

The US renewal of sanctions against Iran, effective Monday, will keep the market’s focus on the the impact that Washington’s efforts to penalize Tehran are having on the global oil market.

There have already been significant shifts in flows. One example is Iran boosting crude exports to the Chinese port of Dalian where bonded tanks are located.

How fast can US pipelines get built? That question has been asked this autumn at conferences around the world.

It’s no wonder. The Permian Basin has arguably become the global swing supplier. Production has soared, helping offset supply declines from OPEC.

ITHACA, NY - October 29, 2018 – Airbus Defence and Space will continue to provide access to its radar satellite data to Ursa Space Systems (Ursa), a data fusion and analytics company. Both parties signed a new four-year contract after having started their cooperation in 2015.

Ursa's weekly crude inventory data for Cushing has a strong correlation to EIA's weekly data for this location. This complementary white paper demonstrates the correlation and reliability of Ursa's data, which comes out days ahead of EIA data.

We don’t just see earth from space. We like to hit the road, meet with clients and interact with folks in the industry which is exactly what we did this week.

Seven of us descended upon Houston to attend the S&P Global Platts North American Crude Oil Exports Summit, which was sponsored by Ursa.

Follows CEO Adam Maher's 2011 SSPI Promise Award