U.S. average regular gasoline and diesel retail prices climb (12/29/2016)

The U.S. average regular gasoline retail price rose almost five cents from the previous week to $2.31 per gallon on December 26, up nearly 28 cents from the same time last year. The Midwest price rose nine cents to $2.28 per gallon and the Rocky Mountain price rose four cents to $2.18 per gallon. The West Coast and the Gulf Coast prices each rose three cents to $2.59 per gallon and $2.08 per gallon, respectively, while the East Coast price rose two cents to $2.31 per gallon. ... More »

Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales under recently enacted laws are expected to start in January 2017 (12/21/2016)

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy recently announced that it will sell crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as early as January 2017. The announcement came after a Continuing Resolution that included a provision for DOE to sell up to $375.4 million in crude oil from the SPR was enacted into law earlier this month. This sale is the first of several planned sales totaling nearly 190 million barrels (Figure 1) during fiscal years 2017 through 2025. These sales reflect provisions in several recent statutes, including sections 403 and 404 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA), the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which became law in December 2015, and the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act), which became law earlier this month. ... More »

Quarterly upstream earnings positive for the first time since 2014 (12/14/2016)

Oil production companies recorded positive earnings from their upstream (exploration and production) operations in the third quarter of 2016 for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2014. According to recently released earnings statements from 102 global oil companies, aggregate earnings from upstream operations totaled almost $4.8 billion. Even though this is considerably lower compared with earnings from 2011 to 2014, earnings recovered from significant losses that occurred throughout 2015 and the first half of 2016 (Figure 1). Oil companies have recently increased price hedging activity that, along with higher earnings, could suggest companies are reducing price risk with plans to increase investment and future production. ... More »

OPEC production cuts reflected in EIA forecast; HGL production grows through 2017 (12/7/2016)

In EIA's December Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), both the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude oil 2017 price forecasts increased by about one dollar per barrel (b) from the November STEO, with prices expected to average $51/b and $52/b, respectively. The WTI price is forecast to average $49/b in the first half of 2017 and end the year at $54/b, while the Brent price is forecast to average $50/b in the first-half of 2017 and end the year at $55/b (Figure 1). ... More »