CHICAGO -- From the coin bearing, "kissing Oprah's ass for 30 years," to extolling the virtues of petroleum blends, OPIS chief oil analyst Tom Kloza's irreverent presentation at the NACS State of the Industry Summit last week in Chicago was a triumphant testament to one theme: Crude.
And the audience of senior-level convenience executives hooted as if they were being regaled at an off-Broadway slapstick show following a day of metrics and measurements that left many an eye bleary and brain circuits fried.
"No one's like Kloza," one operator quipped to a colleague. "I'd get slapped for saying half the stuff he says."
But for Kloza, who has been blending downstream fuel insights and cocktail humor for nearly four decades, it was show time. And he was good (including some lighthearted shots at this writer).
There are few more engaging and knowledgeable than the peripatetic petro publisher. And on this day, Kloza balanced between Brent charts and Sarah Jessica Parker digs. On the former, Kloza continued the Kool-Aid on super light, super sweet crude coming out of North Dakota, Texas and Colorado, saying that the next decade could yield virtual energy independence from Middle Eastern fuel as domestic production, coupled with Canadian shale, should satiate much of America's vehicular appetite.
Specifically, the New Jersey-based analyst forecasted a 4.6-million barrels per day increase in North American production by 2020.
"Gasoline should really be a surplus product seven to eight months out of the year," he touted.
And if there is a loser in this basin of cheap gas it is this. "You're going to see a lot less diesel."
See CSP magazine's Special SOI Edition in June for what Kloza had to say about fuel volatility, just-in-time inventory, the refining market, Oprah, Sarah Jessica Parker and much more.
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