Crude Oil Prices

Elsewhere folks are asking about crude oil prices.

I have links to this data at my "Data Links" page above.

It should be noted that SemCrude prices and Murphy prices can be significantly different.

For newbies: "Light, sweet oil is the preferred oil."

The lighter the oil, the better. Bakken is very light oil.

Sweet oil is preferred over sour oil. Sour oil has higher sulfur content which no one wants for various reasons. Spearfish formation oil, I believe, is sour (I could be wrong, and if I am, I will be corrected). Bakken oil is sweet.

For newbies: Bakken oil is both sweet and light. It would command a higher price but there is glut of oil at the North American storage facilities, particularly at Cushing, Oklahoma. The storage glut (and lack of pipeline capacity) has been worse.

According to Murphy's prices, Bakken is selling between $75 and $80. ND sour is selling between $65 and $70/bbl.

Some time ago, Enbridge in North Dakota said it would carry only Bakken (sweet) oil in its pipes; it would not longer mix sour with sweet. Much of the sour oil, I believe, is being trucked into Canada.