Energy

Reaching Rig Bottom? Oil Rigs Decline for 17th Straight Week [Chart]

Published

9 years ago

April 3, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

Reaching Rig Bottom? Oil Rigs Decline for 17th Straight Week [Chart]

Reaching Rig Bottom? Oil Rigs Decline for 17th Straight Week

The Chart of the Week is a weekly feature in Visual Capitalist on Fridays.

For the 17th straight week, the amount of operational oil rigs has declined in the United States to 802. This is now over a 50% decline since last October, and the last time we had a rig figure this low was the week ending March 4, 2011.

However, as you can see in our chart this week, production is not slowing one bit. US production is now at its highest level since 1972 at 9.3 million bpd. This is the real story, as new efficiencies in oil drilling and pumping have made it so companies can do more with less rigs.

As a result, the amount of oil stored each week is actually setting new records. The Energy Information Administration estimates that the supply in the United States has outpaced refiner demand by 1 million barrels per day since January. At this rate, there will simply not be enough capacity to store all of this crude.

The share of capacity filled in Cushing, Oklahoma has jumped from 41% to 80% over the course of the last year. This storage problem will continue to put price pressure on Texas Tea – it would take some serious geopolitical events to pull oil out of its rut.

Related Topics:supply energy oil rigs baker hughes rig bottom

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Energy

The World’s Biggest Nuclear Energy Producers

China has grown its nuclear capacity over the last decade, now ranking second on the list of top nuclear energy producers.

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Pallavi Rao

A cropped chart breaking down the biggest nuclear energy producers, by country, in 2022.

The World’s Biggest Nuclear Energy Producers

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on Apple or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Scientists in South Korea recently broke a record in a nuclear fusion experiment. For 48 seconds, they sustained a temperature seven times that of the sun’s core.

But generating commercially viable energy from nuclear fusion still remains more science fiction than reality. Meanwhile, its more reliable sibling, nuclear fission, has been powering our world for many decades.

In this graphic, we visualized the top producers of nuclear energy by their share of the global total, measured in terawatt hours (TWh). Data for this was sourced from the Nuclear Energy Institute, last updated in August 2022.

Which Country Generates the Most Nuclear Energy?

Nuclear energy production in the U.S. is more than twice the amount produced by China (ranked second) and France (ranked third) put together. In total, the U.S. accounts for nearly 30% of global nuclear energy output.

However, nuclear power only accounts for one-fifth of America’s electricity supply. This is in contrast to France, which generates 60% of its electricity from nuclear plants.

Rank	Country	Nuclear Energy Produced (TWh)	% of Total
1	🇺🇸 U.S.	772	29%
2	🇨🇳 China	383	14%
3	🇫🇷 France	363	14%
4	🇷🇺 Russia	208	8%
5	🇰🇷 South Korea	150	6%
6	🇨🇦 Canada	87	3%
7	🇺🇦 Ukraine	81	3%
8	🇩🇪 Germany	65	2%
9	🇯🇵 Japan	61	2%
10	🇪🇸 Spain	54	2%
11	🇸🇪 Sweden	51	2%
12	🇧🇪 Belgium	48	2%
13	🇬🇧 UK	42	2%
14	🇮🇳 India	40	2%
15	🇨🇿 Czech Republic	29	1%
N/A	🌐 Other	219	8%
N/A	🌍 Total	2,653	100%

Another highlight is how China has rapidly grown its nuclear energy capabilities in the last decade. Between 2016 and 2021, for example, it increased its share of global nuclear energy output from less than 10% to more than 14%, overtaking France for second place.

On the opposite end, the UK’s share has slipped to 2% over the same time period.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has heavily relied on nuclear energy to power its grid. In March 2022, it lost access to its key Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station after Russian forces wrested control of the facility. With six 1,000 MW reactors, the plant is one of the largest in Europe. It is currently not producing any power, and has been the site of recent drone attacks.