Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the fourth annual Argus Americas Crude Summit, hosted by Argus Media from January 25 to 27, in Houston, Texas. This premier conference, held at the beautiful Houstonian Hotel, hosted top trading executives and opinion leaders in the global crude markets. Attendance of just over 200 guests was the highest in the event’s four year history.
I applaud the Master of Ceremonies, Daniel Massey who is President of US Operations at Argus Media. He was very engaging and did a fantastic job presiding over this event. The presentations were very informative, and I found the discussion of America’s increasing production of light-sweet crude from Eagle Ford and the dramatic impact on US crude import and global trade flows to be quite enthralling. One of the most interesting points made during the presentation was that rising crude output is entering the market faster than many analysts expected, and this might be what we need to displace most US sweet crude import in the future.
A number of trending topics on Shifting Import Dynamics were discussed, including:
- America’s role as an importer.
- The effect of domestic production on light/heavy differentials.
- Shifting markets for Canadian, Latin American and other traditional US crude suppliers.
- Changing domestic trade patterns, including mid-continent supply patterns, pipeline development and the role of rail.
- Facing a light-sweet future — the refiner’s dilemma.
- Future markets shakeout — WTI, Brent and more.
All the participants enjoyed a tasteful cocktail reception benefiting the Carl McCain Memorial Foundation. It was a wonderful networking opportunity for executives, traders, strategic planners, brokers, analysts, crude oil marketers, bank and hedge fund representatives, and consultants alike.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by the ZE booth. To find out where we’re headed next, please visit our events page.