Your 15-gallon fill-up will cost you nearly nine dollars more than it did a year ago.  Gasoline prices range from $2.64 to $2.89 in Hays, and we’re seeing $2.79 a gallon across Great Bend. Across Kansas, the average is $2.753, nearly 45 cents higher than a year ago.  AAA says the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.914, nearly four cents higher than a week ago, and 43 cents a gallon higher than a year ago. The government said last week US gasoline inventories dropped half a million barrels but remain about 7% above the five year average for this time of year.

Scientists at Stanford have developed a new way of looking at earthquakes in our area.  They forecast a drop in man-made earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas for the next couple of years but say we could see one potentially damaging quake over 5.0 during that time.  The model looks at pressure increases brought on by oil and gas industry wastewater disposal, and places them in the context of known faults in the area.

Baker Hughes reports 1,052 active drilling rigs as of Friday, reflecting a drop of two oil rigs nationwide.  Texas noted a drop of five rigs, while both Oklahoma and New Mexico were up two.  In Canada there are 182 active rigs, up four for the week.  Independent Oil & Gas Service reported no change in eastern Kansas last week, and 33 drilling rigs west of Wichita that are moving in, rigging up or drilling.

Operators filed 40 permits for drilling at new locations across Kansas last week, 1,399 so far this year.  There are 19 new permits east of Wichita, and 21 in western Kansas, including two in Barton County and three in Ellis County.

Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 39 new well completions across the state, 24 in eastern Kansas and 15 west of Wichita, including one each in Ellis, Russell and Stafford counties.  So far this year we’ve seen 1,180 wells completed across Kansas, up nearly two hundred from a year ago, but about one quarter the number of completions reported by early October 2014.

The government said domestic crude oil inventories were up eight million barrels last week to 404 million, which is equal to the five-year average for this time of year.  Imports are up about ten percent over last year at this time.  The U.S. Energy Information Administration in its weekly update said U.S. production increased by about 10,000 barrels per day to 11.082 million barrels per day last week. EIA’s monthly petroleum report, which breaks out production by state, showed Kansas production down about 10,000 barrels per day to 95,000 barrels per day in July (the latest monthly numbers available).

Reuters reports U.S. crude oil shipments to China have “totally stopped” as the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies takes its toll on what was a fast growing businesses.  U.S. crude oil exports to China, which only started in 2016, have not yet been included in among steep new import tariffs, but Chinese oil importers have shied away from new orders recently.  Shipping sources confirm U.S. crude oil shipments to China ground to a halt last month.

Iran’s oil exports dropped again last week to 1.1 million barrels per day, just over a month before renewed U.S. oil sanctions kick in.  The Islamic republic’s exports are down about 1.6 million barrels per day from September, and 2.5 million bpd lower than six months ago.

Russia and Saudi Arabia have reportedly struck a private deal to raise oil output and cool down rising prices.  Reuters reports the two countries came to the agreement after a series of meetings last month, and informed the United States and other producers last week.

Saudi Arabia will invest $20 billion in the next few years to maintain and possibly expand its spare oil production capacity. Reuters reports the kingdom has a maximum sustainable capacity of 12 million barrels per day, and could increase that to 13 million.  The country’s oil minister said the kingdom will surpass the 10.7 million barrels per day in actual production in November.

Canadian crude is still down around $35 per barrel, because of a backlog caused by refinery outages, pipelines at capacity, and new maritime fuel standards.  The spread between the U.S. and Canadian benchmarks is at an all-time high and the CBC reports the country is losing out on billions of dollars in foregone revenues this year.

New revenues from the Oklahoma oil patch helped swell the state’s September tax collections to a new record.  Oklahoma State Treasurer Ken Miller notes that the newly enacted three percent increase in oil production taxes generated an additional $31.2 million in September.  Observers say the booming energy industry is floating revenues in other areas of the economy as well.  Tax collections last month totaled $1.2 billion.

It’s been a long shot for decades.  But now an effort to revoke the sovereign immunity that shields OPEC members from legal action is gaining steam in Congress.  A Senate subcommittee heard testimony on the so-called “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act,” or NOPEC.  The bill would change U.S. antitrust law to allow OPEC producers to be sued for collusion.  Reuters reports past U.S. leaders have opposed the NOPEC bill, but the possibility of its success may have increased due to President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of the cartel.  More than a dozen NOPEC bills have been introduced over the last two decades, and each was loudly opposed by the U.S. oil and gas industry.