By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
Near-month NYMEX crude settled Friday at $59.44 per barrel, a gain of 25 cents on the day, up 32 cents from a week ago, and more than a dollar higher than at the first of the year. Prices a year ago were just under $79.
Kansas crude prices start the week two dollars higher than the first of this year, but about 12 dollars lower than the first of last year. At CHS in McPherson, Kansas Common starts the week at $49.75 per barrel for a half-dollar weekly gain, after gaining a quarter per gallon on Friday.
Operators completed 24 wells in Kansas last week. That's 42 wells since the start of the year. Independent Oil and Gas Service notes one well-completion in Ellis County, and one in Stafford County. Add two in Finney County, one in Gove County, and one in Rooks County for a total of 11 wells in western Kansas last week.
Topping the list of completions so far this year is Anderson County with 19, followed by Allen County with four. Ellis County is third with three completions since New Year's Day.
Leading the permit tally so far this year are Woodson County with nine permits, followed by Rawlins County with four. Rounding out the state total are Gove, Rice, and Sumner counties with one each. Kansas regulators okayed eleven new drilling permits last week, or 16 so far this year.
The Kansas Rig Count from Independent Oil and Gas Service is unchanged from a week ago, down seven percent from a month ago, and down 17 percent from a year ago. There are seven active rigs east of Wichita, and seven in western Kansas.
Drilling was underway Friday on leases in Russell and Rooks counties.
The Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes is up one oil rig but down two seeking natural gas, for a total of 543 rigs. New Mexico is up two rigs; Texas is down two. Louisiana drops by one rig from last week. The total in the U.S. is down by 37 rigs from a year ago. Texas is down 53 rigs from last year at this time. A few states show rising rigs counts compared to last year, including Utah, Wyoming, Ohio, and Louisiana.
Average gasoline prices last year dropped 21 cents a gallon compared to the year before. The Energy Information Administration reports prices have dropped in each of the three years since spiking to an eight-year high after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The average pump price last year was $3.10 per gallon, down from three thirty-one ($3.31) in 2024, and three fifty-two ($3.52) in 2023.
The cheapest road-trips are still in Oklahoma. Kansas slips to number three.
Pump prices dropped to five-year lows last week across the country, across the state, and across town. They're up a few cents this week rising to $2.42 per gallon Thursday in Kansas. Only Oklahoma and Texas were cheaper. Diesel prices are about three cents lower than last week.
The government reports big increases in crude oil and fuel inventories. Gasoline stockpiles are up 46 million barrels since Thanksgiving, after rising in each of the last nine weekly reports, including nine million barrels last week. Inventories are four percent above the five-year seasonal average.
Diesel inventories are dropping. The government says diesel stockpiles are about four percent below the five-year average.
Commercial crude oil inventories rise 3.4 million barrels to just over 422 million as of January 9. The Energy Information Administration says stockpiles are about three percent below the five-year seasonal average.
Strategic stockpiles rise by 200,000 barrels for a total just under 414 million. That's up five percent from a year ago.
Crude oil imports are up three-quarters of a million daily barrels, a 12 percent spike, at just under 7.1 million barrels a day. Imports are up nearly a million barrels a day from a year ago, but down nearly half a million from two years ago. The four-week average is down nearly six percent from last year.
At 4.3 million barrels a day, crude oil exports are up one percent from last week, up five-and-a-half percent from a year ago, and down more than 14% from two years ago. The four-week average is up nearly 300,000 barrels or eight percent from a year ago, at just over 3,900 barrels a day. Refined product exports are down two percent from a week ago at just over seven million barrels a day.
U.S. crude production drops below 13.8 million barrels a day for the first time in nine weeks. The Energy Information Administration reports output dropped by 58,000 daily barrels to average 13,753,000 barrels per day. Output outpaces last year at this time by more than a quarter million barrels a day. The four-week average remains above 13.8 million.
The Bureau of Land Management approved 5,742 permits, a 55% increase from the year before. BLM held 22 lease sales last year, leasing some 328,000 new acres of public land across 10 states.