By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
U.S. crude oil production drops for the third week in a row. The Energy Information Administration reports production last week averaged 13.38 million barrels per day. That's the first time since May 16, and only the fifth time this year, in which weekly output has dropped below 13.4 million. The average over the last four weeks and the average so far this year each remain over 13.4 million barrels a day.
Crude oil production in Kansas is just over half what it was ten years ago. The Kansas Geological Survey reports just 73,303 barrels a day last year, the lowest annual total in KGS records. Output for the first quarter of this year is down to 68,469 barrels a day. Ellis County output dropped 200 daily barrels from a year ago and seven hundred from two years ago, to an average of 5,299 barrels a day. Haskell County lands in second among counties at 4,551 barrels a day, an increase of more than six hundred daily barrels from the first quarter of last year. Finney County, at third, improved on last year by about 100 barrels at 3,961 barrels a day. Barton County notched production of 3,728 barrels a day through March, down slightly from last year.
The most recent weekly EIA crude-export report of 2.7 million barrels per day is down more than a million daily barrels from a year ago, but up half a million from two years ago. Four-week average crude exports are down eighteen percent from last year at this time.
Crude oil exports in the United States saw ups and downs in the first six months of 2025. Crude exports are down more than a million barrels a day from a month ago, and are nearly 2.5 million barrels lower than the recent peak in mid-April. The Energy Information Administration says crude exports started this year just over three million barrels a day, rising over four million for most of the first three months of the year. Exports topped five million barrels a day for one week in April and have plummeted since, down 214,000 barrels a day in May and another 1.15 million in June.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve took delivery on 200,000 barrels of crude last week. The current dipstick reads 403 million barrels, up nearly 30 million or eight percent from a year ago. The US sold crude for an average of $95 a barrel from the SPR to limit price increases after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We've been refilling the reserves prices about $25 less. That's $970 million in savings since refill operations resumed in April of last year.
Commercial crude stockpiles increased by more than seven million barrels. EIA says the nationwide stockpile of 426 million barrels (as of July 4) is about eight percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Fuel inventories dropped last week. EIA says diesel fuel stockpiles are 23% below the five year average for this time of year. Stockpiles of regular gasoline are about one percent below the five-year seasonal average.
Fuel prices tick upward, but remain lower than a year ago. The auto club AAA reports this summer's pump prices reached the lowest seasonal average in four years. The national average of $3.17 a gallon is up a few pennies from earlier in the week, up a nickel from last month, but down 35 cents from a year ago.
Kansas is among the eleven cheapest states for regular gasoline at $2.88 per gallon, down a penny from last week, but up two cents from last month. Average diesel prices in Kansas are about twenty cents higher than a month ago, but nearly a dime cheaper than a year ago at $3.43 per gallon statewide.
The Association of American Railroads reports a decline in US oil-by-rail despite an increase in overall rail traffic. The tally of June petroleum tanker carloads trails last June by 1.5%. Totals for the first half of the year are down just under one percent. The latest weekly tally of just over 10-thousand tanker carloads is up five percent over the same week last year.