Daily Energy News ┃ 04/02/26
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The days of Americans waiting in Middle East-induced lines at the pump are over.
Reuters (4/1/26) reports: "U.S. refined products exports hit a record high in March as the Iran war left Europe, Asia and Africa scrambling to fill supply shortfalls created by the near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has been disrupting shipping in the strait, through which oil and fuel exports flow that represent a fifth of global consumption. The loss of these supplies has forced production cuts at plants in those regions, causing price spikes and threatening an economic slowdown. U.S. exports of clean petroleum products, which include gasoline, naphtha, diesel and jet fuel, hit about 3.11 million barrels per day in March, up from about 2.5 million bpd in February, data from vessel-tracking service Kpler showed. That is the highest monthly level in Kpler records going back to 2017. U.S. fuel exports to Europe rose nearly 27% month-over-month to 414,000 bpd in March, while exports to Asia more than doubled to 224,000 bpd, the Kpler data showed. Exports to Africa surged 169% to 148,000 bpd, the data showed...U.S. refiners last month shipped a record amount of fuel on routes rarely used before, such as from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Australia, and even U.S. markets that themselves are reliant on imports shipped fuel out to Europe and elsewhere...For fuel exporters, the decision to keep fuel in the country or ship it to buyers elsewhere boils down to margins. While U.S. fuel prices have surged, they are not yet at demand-destroying levels, Kpler's Smith said."
The future is going to be fueled by American natural gas.
Wood Mackenzie (4/1/26) reports: "Driven by increased electrification demand, especially around the expansion of data centers, the gas turbine market faces a significant market imbalance that will see prices surge through 2027, according to a new report from Wood Mackenzie. According to the report, 'The US gas turbine market: navigating manufacturing scarcity and demand growth,' global orders sat at 110 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2025, but global manufacturing capacity is only capable of 60-70 GW. This has pushed prices to new highs, with the market anticipated to reach US$600/kW by end-2027—a 195% increase since 2019. 'Gas turbines make up an estimated 20 – 30% of project costs for combined cycle projects, and even higher for simple cycle ones, making them by far the largest driver of gas plant costs,' said Aurora Tenorio, senior analyst, Supply Chain at Wood Mackenzie. 'This supply constraint, compounded by six-year lead times and order books sold through 2027, has fundamentally shifted the market from fuel-economics-driven decisions to procurement-strategy-driven project viability.' Turbine orders are expected to peak in 2026 as developers attempt to secure equipment for 63 GW of gas capacity additions from 2026 to 2030. Data center expansion has emerged as the dominant force reshaping the gas turbine market, representing a fundamental shift in customer composition as AI workloads drive power requirements to unprecedented levels. Wood Mackenzie forecasts data center electricity consumption will increase 96% between 2026 and 2031, with AI and cloud expansion becoming the fastest-growing source of new load on the US grid."
https://www.climatedepot.com/2026/04/02/american-energy-alliance-a-far-cry-from-the-70s-the-days-of-americans-waiting-in-middle-east-induced-lines-at-the-pump-are-over/
