Matt Kohlman
Senior managing editor 
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March 31, 2017 05:01 UTC 
(1)
Pull over, California. The driving capital of the world is … Texas? Texas may not have more cars than California. Or more people driving those cars. But in terms of gasoline consumption, Big Oil beat Hollywood for the second straight month in January, and is trending toward an annual win for the first time since 1986 — when “Dallas” was a top-rated TV show. |
Jeffrey Bair
Reporter 
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March 30, 2017 05:01 UTC
(3)
I love it when I come across something random during the day that points back to my work. (Here’s where the cynics will say, “Said no one, ever …” — but bear with me.) We’ve just past a solemn anniversary that led to great leaps forward in energy safety. Eighty-plus years ago on March 18, 1937, gas that had accumulated beneath the floors and in the walls of the London School in New London, Texas, exploded. Some 295 people, mostly teens and pre-teens, died. Workers rushed from the nearby oil fields to attempt rescues. |
John DeLapp
Editor, Americas shipping 
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March 24, 2017 06:01 UTC
(5)
An eye-catching fixture was seen recently that gave a glimpse of the dirty side of clean tankers. The Medium Range tanker Iver Experience was reported to be on subjects to Lukoil to load a a 38,000 mt cargo of diesel oil on the US Gulf Coast and then head across the Atlantic. That doesn’t seem out of line, but the freight rate for that deal was Worldscale 85, or $11.72/mt, when that route was sitting at w102.5, $14.13/mt. |
Joseph Innace
Platts metals content director, Americas
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March 3, 2017 10:00 UTC
(4)
The commodities price watch during President Donald Trump’s term is under way. In this ongoing series, we consider the price averages for some key Platts commodity benchmarks since Trump became president on January 20. The latest table pulls data from the inauguration through February 28, 2017. Of the 11 commodities tracked, eight have gained between 1.3-9.1% since he took the oath of office. Three have declined. With the exception of steel and coal, all current prices lag the average prices during President Obama’s two terms.
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Joseph Innace
Platts metals content director, Americas
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January 20, 2017 17:25 UTC
(2)
As the book closes Friday, January 20, 2017, on President Barack Obama’s two terms, here are the price averages during his tenure for some key commodity benchmarks, as well as the latest price. The commodities clock during President Donald Trump’s tenure will start ticking in earnest on Monday, January 23, and S&P Global Platts will update the same running averages accordingly. |
Meghan Gordon
Senior writer, oil
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January 19, 2017 14:56 UTC
(3)
This blog post was written in collaboration with John Kingston, the Director of Global Market Insights for S&P Global. The U.S. still imports a lot of crude oil. It also now exports crude oil. It’s also the world’s biggest exporter of petroleum products. So any change in the country’s corporate tax system that has an enormous shift in the tax treatment of imports and exports is going to have the potential to impact oil flows, and by extension, oil markets. |
Keefe Borden
Editor
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January 4, 2017 17:57 UTC
(4)
It’s essential for a daily fixture of life in the United States — a morning commute for many working Americans — and for transportation of basic goods in the US. The US is dependent on gasoline for nearly every aspect of transportation, but the hard reality for the country’s drivers is that its refiners don’t produce near enough to meet demand. Government data shows we now consume about 9.3 million b/d of gasoline nationwide. To offset the shortfall, the US imports about 710,000 b/d of gasoline — more than two cargo ships per day. |
Neil Ford
Freelance consultant and journalist
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December 13, 2016 16:11 UTC
(0)
Fuel subsidies in Nigeria remain a thorny issue. State support for gasoline and diesel prices, both directly at the pump and through subsidies for fuel imports, places a huge burden on the national finances. A government report calculated that $8 billion out of total federal state expenditure of $22 billion in 2013 was spent on fuel subsidies. Much of that subsidized fuel does not even benefit Nigerians, as it is smuggled across the border into neighboring states where prices are higher. |
Joe Innace and Geoffrey Craig
Contributors 
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November 8, 2016 18:42 UTC
(3)
To wrap up our series examining commodity prices and US presidential elections, we turned to Jodie Gunzberg, head of commodities and real assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Her recent analysis of commodity returns reveals that oil, gold and 17 out of 24 commodities overall perform better with a Democratic president, while the other seven, including all grains, have been best under a Republican commander-in-chief. |
Yen Ling Song
Senior Analyst, Platts Oil Analytics
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October 31, 2016 05:01 UTC
(4)
The dramatic transformation that China’s vast refining landscape has undergone in the last year is rewriting the market dynamics for oil trade flows in Asia. With the deregulation of the sector and the emergence of a swathe of independent refineries on the eastern coast, the country has been flooded — more than in any previous year — by an overwhelming supply of oil products. |
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