Take stock of the top ten important events in the energy industry in 2018

As 2018 draws to a close, now is the time to take stock of the major events that took place in the energy sector during the year
.
This year's headlines may not have been as distinctly big as in past years, but many of the biggest developments of the year have impacted oil prices
.

Oil price roller coaster

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) opened the year at $60 a barrel
.
Brent crude prices were just below $67/barrel
.
By early October, behind several developments covered in the other stories below, WTI closed at $80/b and Brent crude oil was above $86/b
.
But then prices fell partly because the ongoing trade war with China caused them to stop importing U.
S.
oil, and partly because Saudi Arabia had increased production to make up for Iran's lost exports, so the U.
S.
dropped sanctions
on Iranian exports at the last minute.
The overall impact is the collapse
of oil prices.
As we enter the last week of the year, WTI has dropped to $45/b and Brent crude is trading at $54/b
.

U.
S.
oil capacity refreshed

Back in early 2018, the U.
S.
Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced that the previous monthly record for U.
S.
crude oil production of 10.
044 million b/d set in November 1970 had been broken
.
U.
S.
oil production will rise steadily throughout 2018, reaching 11.
475 million b/d by September 2018 (according to available monthly data).

China's 531 PV New Deal

China's solar industry has grown at an alarming rate in recent years, but has suffered a pair of setbacks
this year.
First, President Trump announced a 30 percent tariff
on imported solar equipment for at least the next four years.
Since then, the Chinese government has announced that it will cut subsidies
for renewable energy.
China's solar sector was affected by the news, resulting in a decline
in the global growth rate of solar energy in 2018.

Venezuelan oil production continues to collapse

As the economy is mired in crisis, Venezuela's oil production continues to decline
sharply.
As of November, it had fallen to 1.
137 million barrels per day, down nearly 50%
since 2016.
The continued decline will threaten Venezuela's position as an exporter of crude oil, putting further pressure
on the country's economy.
To make matters worse, ConocoPhillips won a $2 billion arbitration against Venezuela's state-owned oil company in 2007 for the expropriation of two oil projects in
Venezuela.
According to Reuters, ConocoPhillips seized some of Venezuela's Caribbean assets as payment
for the debt.

EPA Administrator Pruitt resigns

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is a "thorny problem"
for the U.
S.
ethanol industry.
As Oklahoma's attorney general, he opposed the country's Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and continued to focus on weakening the program
as EPA administrator.
Shares of most ethanol producers rose after the news of his resignation; Shortly after he left office, President Trump announced the end of the restriction on the sale of
fuel blends containing 15% ethanol (E15) throughout the year.

New CO2 emission records

When BP World Energy Statistics Year 2018 was released in June, global CO2 emissions reached a record high in 2017, 426 million tonnes higher than in 2016, up 1.
6% from the previous year and above the 10-year average growth rate of 1.
3%.

China is the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, with total emissions exceeding the combined emissions
of the United States and the European Union.

OPEC increases and then decreases

Following the 174th (normal) meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in June, the cartel alliance reached an agreement with Russia to announce that it would increase production for the first time after implementing production
cuts in November 2016.
The news is that the reaction to oil prices has returned to the $70/bbl range
.
However, the trade war between China and the United States is starting to raise concerns
about growing demand.
Then in December, oil prices collapsed in the fall, helped by Saudi Arabia's support for President Donald Trump's demand for higher production, and OPEC and its allies subsequently agreed to cut oil production by 1.
2 million b/d
.

Record proven reserves of oil and gas in the United States

In December, the U.
S.
Geological Survey (USGS) revised the technically recoverable resources of the Wolfcamp formation in the Permian Basin to 46.
3 billion barrels of crude oil and 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas
.
The newly estimated recoverable reserves estimate more than doubled and increased the amount of recoverable natural gas by more than
17 times.
The EIA also announced that proven U.
S.
crude oil reserves (more stringent than "recoverable resources") increased by 19.
5 percent to 39.
2 billion barrels, setting a new record
for proven U.
S.
crude reserves.
The EIA also published new records
for proven U.
S.
natural gas reserves.

Gas prices exploded

Over the past four years, natural gas prices have been almost entirely below $3 per million British thermal heat (MMBtu), and Forbes has issued news that low inventories could cause prices to spike
.
In fact, natural gas futures prices rose 60 percent over the next three months and were set above $4/MMBtu for the first time since 2014
.

IMO 2020

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) actually announced in 2016 that it would limit the sulfur content of all marine fuels from the current 3.
5% to 0.
5%
by 2020.
But this year the issue has gone mainstream, as there are concerns that the problem will not be supplied enough in time to meet demand, and the implementation of major rules to limit sulfur has had a big impact
on diesel prices.