By JOHN P. TRETBAR

There’s been a significant jump in gasoline prices locally, even as the state and national averages are now heading the other direction. Gasoline prices in Hays and Great Bend were up to $2.29/gallon Monday. AAA reports the average price across Kansas for a gallon of regular was down two tenths of a cent to $2.263. The national average dropped one tenth to $2.419.

Baker Hughes reported 857 active drilling rigs across the US last week, an increase of five oil rigs and five targeting natural gas. The count in Canada wasdown 19 to 99 active rigs. Independent Oil and Gas Service tells us there were 14 active rigs east of Wichita, up seven, and 27 in western Kansas, up one. They’re drilling at two sites in Barton County, drilling is about to comment at one site each in Barton and Ellis County, and they’re moving in completion tools at sites in Barton, Ellis and Stafford counties.

Independent Oil and Gas reported 27 new well completions last week, 451 so far this year. There were nine new completions east of Wichita and 18 in western Kansas. Barton County reported three completions. Two of them were dry holes. There were two in Ellis County, one of the was a dry hole. And, Russell County reported two completions with one dry hole.

There were 27 permits filed across Kansas for drilling at new locations, 441 so far this year. There were eight new permits filed in eastern Kansas and 19 west of Wichita, including two each in Barton and Russell counties.

Reuters reports some big new bets in the oil patch by investors who lost big last year due to bankruptcies in the industry. In the first quarter of this year, private equity funds raised $19.8 billion for energy ventures. That’s nearly three times the total in the same period last year.

EPA will reconsider a rule on greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas operations. The agency said it would also delay its compliance date. The American Petroleum Institute and the Texas Oil and Gas Association, among others, petitioned the EPA a year ago to reconsider the rule limiting emissions of methane and other pollutants from new and revamped oil and gas wells and systems. The agency said it would delay the June 3 compliance date by 90 days and take public comments in the meantime.

President Donald Trump’s efforts to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement has drawn opposition from some of the world’s largest oil producers. BP, Chevron, Shell and Exxon-Mobil have all signaled their reluctance to pull out of the COP21 accord. Each called it an effective first step toward an effective global framework. Observers note another reason: the agreement’s crackdown on carbon emissions favors natural gas over coal.

The latest energy survey from the Federal Reserve of Kansas City shows modest growth in energy jobs throughout the Fed’s tenth district, which includes Kansas and Oklahoma. Only about 13% of oil and gas firms responding to the survey said they had fewer employees in the first quarter of this year, while about 44% reported increases and the same number reported no change. The employee index showed growth for the second quarter in a row, following eight quarters of negative or unchanged job growth.

Bloomberg reports some of the major crude-producing countries have reached an initial agreement to extend output cuts. OPEC and other major suppliers have failed, after three months of limiting production, to achieve their target of reducing oil inventories below the five-year historical average. Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said Thursday the producers pledged to reduce output for six months starting in January, but didn’t identify or specify the number of countries in the initial deal for an extension.

The state-owned oil company of Oman is now reportedly conferring with some unidentified banks in an effort to offer its own initial public stock offering, following in the footsteps of Saudi Arabia. The country’s oil minister says they hope to attract more foreign investment.

The government reported last week that light oil from tight shale formations accounted for more than half of the 8.4 million barrels per day produced in the U.S. last year. The Energy Information Administration noted this is the second year in a row that light oil had driven the increases in domestic production, with most of it coming from Texas.

Petra Nova, a new carbon-capture facility, is now online outside Houston. The billion-dollar project is expected to capture 90% (1.6 million tons) of CO2 emissions from a coal-fire power plant. That carbon dioxide will then be transported 81 miles to an oil field in Jackson County, Texas, where it will be used for enhanced oil recovery. The San Antonio Current newspaper reports the project will help produce an estimated 60 million barrels of oil, roughly three times the field’s current capacity.