Today in Energy

Production of crude oil decreased in the United States in May 2020 by 1.99 million barrels per day (b/d), the largest monthly decrease since at least January 1980, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Monthly Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production Report. This decrease surpassed the previous record drop in September 2008 when Hurricanes Gustav and Ike caused production to fall by 1.03 million b/d. May marks the sixth consecutive monthly decrease in crude oil production and is the third month since the March 2020 declaration of a national emergency concerning the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) State Energy Data System (SEDS), Illinois had the highest energy consumption in the Midwest and was the third-highest energy producer of any state in the region. In 2018, customers in Illinois consumed 4.0 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of energy, and 2.6 quadrillion Btu was produced in the state. Total energy production and consumption in Illinois each accounted for nearly 17% of the Midwest's total.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Natural Gas Annual Respondent Query System, 2,022 natural gas delivery companies delivered natural gas to end-use customers in the United States in 2018. A delivery company is defined as any entity that delivers natural gas directly to end users. In 2018, local distribution companies (LDCs) primarily served homes and businesses, delivering approximately 90%, or 22 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), of end-use natural gas to the residential and commercial sectors. Pipeline companies deliver the highest volume of natural gas to end-use consumers in the United States, predominately to electric power and industrial customers. Natural gas distributers operated by municipalities, referred to here as municipal companies, are the most common type of natural gas distributor in the United States, but they deliver relatively small volumes of end-use natural gas.

Utility-scale geothermal power plants in the United States use either steam power or a binary cycle to generate electricity. Of the 2,558 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power plant capacity currently operating in the United States, 1,826 MW of capacity is from steam-powered plants and 731 MW of capacity is from binary-cycle powered plants. Unlike steam-powered geothermal power plants, which use steam directly from a geothermal well to spin a turbine and generate electricity, binary-cycle geothermal power plants use a heat exchanger to take heat from the hot water to heat a secondary fluid that then spins a turbine.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) most recent Monthly Energy Review, the United States consumed 6.5 quadrillion British thermal units of energy in April 2020, the lowest monthly energy consumption since September 1989. Energy consumption in April 2020 was 14% lower than in April 2019, the largest year-over-year decrease in EIA's monthly total energy consumption, a data series that dates back to 1973.