The July, 2015, Dockets Are Posted -- June 25, 2015 -- QEP Looking To Drill 24 Wells On Each Of Two 1280-Acre Units

Disclaimer: these summaries are for my personal use only; you are free to read them; don't quote me on them; there will be typographical and factual errors.  If this is important to you go to the source. Link here.

Past dockets are archived here.

Highlights. These are just the cases that caught my eye the first time through; full summary is here.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Newfield with several cases requesting waivers for flaring. This post explains the reason for the flaring cases.
24183, CLR, Banks and North Tobacco Garden-Bakken, 14 wells on an existing 1280-acre unit; McKenzie
24184, CLR, Camp-Bakken, 22 wells on an existing overlapping 2560-acre unit; McKenzie, Williams
24199, XTO, Capa-Bakken, establish seven overlapping 2560-acre units; and two overlapping 3840-acre units; 2 wells on each, Williams
24234, Peregrine Petroleum Partners, Flat Top Butte-Bakken, 4 wells on an existing 640-acre unit, McKenzie

Thursday, July 23, 2015

This may be a record: Whiting has 91 pooling cases in one day
24258, Whiting, Sanish-Bakken, establish 6 overlapping 2560-acre units; 11 wells on each, Mountrail
24260, MRO, Antelope-Bakken, 15 wells  on two 1280-acre units; McKenzie
24361, Lime Rock Resources, Stanley-Bakken, 6 wells on each of three 640-acre units; 6 wells on a 1280-acre unit; 14 wells on each of seven 1280-acre units; 6 wells on each of three 2560-acre units, Mountrail (18+6+98+18 = 140 wells)
24362, QEP, Grail-Bakken, 24 wells on each of two 1280-acre units, McKenzie [14/23-150-95; 15/22-150-95] -- see below

Friday, July 24, 2015

Two continued cases

*****************************************

24362, QEP, Grail-Bakken, 24 wells on each of two 1280-acre units, McKenzie [14/23-150-95; 15/22-150-95]:

What The Supreme Court Ruling Meant To The Nation's Insurers: $3 Billion Minutes After The Announcement; GDP Forecast Ticks Up -- June 25, 2015

538 is reporting: The Supreme Court’s Obamacare Decision Is Already Worth $3 Billion For Insurers.

The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to Obamacare’s health insurance subsidies in a 6-3 decision Thursday morning. The King v. Burwell decision will make a big difference to the 6.4 million Americans who were expected to lose their subsidies if the Court ruled the other way. And it’s making an even bigger difference to the health insurance industry, which relies on the subsidies to help poorer customers afford premiums.

The five largest publicly traded health insurance companies (UnitedHealth, Anthem,1 Aetna, Humana and Cigna) — all of which were party to an amicus brief in support of the subsidies filed by America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group for insurance companies — rose an average of 1 percent over their opening prices by 11 a.m. Thursday. The bounce started at approximately 10:10 a.m., right when SCOTUSblog first announced the Supreme Court’s decision.

I've made that case from the beginning. The bill was written by the insurance companies; it was marketed by a Mitt Goober.

******************************

Women's Soccer

And from the same source: women's soccer.

**************************

GDP Forecast Ticks Up

Latest forecast — June 25, 2015.

The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2015 was 2.1 percent on June 25, up from 2.0 percent on June 23. The nowcast for second-quarter real consumption growth ticked up from 2.9 percent to 3.0 percent following yesterday's GDP release from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and this morning's personal income and outlays release from the same agency.

******************************

Blind spots
Naive
Cognitive dissonance
Inconsistent
Gullible

Five (5) New Permits -- North Dakota, June 25, 2015

Updates

December 22, 2015: the Oasis Johnsrud wells are updated. 

Original Post

Active rigs:

	6/25/2015	06/25/2014	06/25/2013	06/25/2012	06/25/2011
Active Rigs	76	193	187	213	170

Five (5) new permits --

• Operators: Oasis (3), Slawson, Sinclair
• Fields: Siverston (McKenzie), Big Bend (Mountrail), Lone Butte (McKenzie)
• Comments:

One (1) well coming off the confidential list Friday:

• 28597, 514, Hess, EN-Vachal-155-93-0532H-4, Alger, the target a 10-foot window with the center 28 feet into the center of the middle Bakken, total drilling days: 10 (1 + 9), t5/15; cum 116K 1/17;

Three of the new permits today with interesting nomenclature, note the "N":

• 31480, 1,703, Rolfson N 5198 12-17 5T, Siverston, t8/16; cum 136K 1/17;
• 31481, 1,480, Rolfson N 5198 12-17 6B, Siverston, t9/16; cum 139K 1/17;
• 31482, 25 (no typo), Rolfson N 5198 12-17 7T, Siverston, t8/16; cum 107K 1/17;

******************************************

The Oasis Johnsrud Wells

The Oasis Johnsrud wells: in the immediate vicinity, twelve (12) more Oasis permits in one drilling unit, the Johnsrud permits:

The 4-well pad:

• 31327, 733, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 12-18 4T2, Three Forks second bench, 36 stages, 4 million lbs, t6/16; cum 134K 1/17;
• 31328, 714, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 12-18 5B, t6/16; cum 164K 1/17;
• 31329, 628, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 12-18 6T, Three Forks, 36 stages, 3.9 million lbs, t6/16; cum 112K 1/17;
• 31330, 527, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 12-18 7B, t6/16; cum 154K 1/17;

The 3-well pad:

• 31331, 648, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 12-18 8T2, t6/16; cum 118K 1/17;
• 31332, 235, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 12-18 9B, t6/16; cum 173K 1/17;
• 31333, 247, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 12-18 10T, t7/16; cum 129K 1/17;

The 5-well pad:

• 31338, 1,260, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 14-18 11T, Siverston, t7/16; cum 115K 1/17;
• 31337, 1,179, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 14-18 12B, Siverston, t7/16; cum 151K 1/17;
• 31336, 747, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 14-18 13T, Siverston, t7/16; cum 111K 1/17;
• 31335, 1,719, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 14-18 14B, Siverston, t7/16; cum 163K 1/17;
• 31334, 895, Oasis, Johnsrud 5198 14-18 15TX, Siverston, t7/16; cum 154K 1/17;

The singleton from the south, running north:

• 22202, 2,104, Oasis Johnsrud 19-18H, 28 stages, 3.3 million lbs, t5/12; cum 225K 1/17; off-line most of 7/15;

Off The Net For Awhile

Tweeting right now:

• California State Assembly votes 46 to 30 to approve legislation ending vaccine exemptions for personal or religious beliefs in public schools - @SovernNation [FINALLY]
• Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoes state budget legislation, cites $4 billion deficit - @AP [Hell froze over]
• Iran and Cuba identified as serial human rights abusers in State Department's annual human rights report - @AP [The president did not get the memo; will not read the report; released when SecState was flying back home with a broken hip]

******************************

So Much For Global Warming

Now, It's Regional

IceAgeNow is reporting:

"Scientists" admit we may be headed into a Little Ice Age, but keep on blathering about “global warming." They dismiss their findings by saying the ice age will merely be “regional” (as if full-fledged ice ages aren’t also “regional.”)

A rapid decline in the Sun’s activity is making it increasingly likely that the world is headed into a “grand solar minimum,” says a spokesman for the British Met Office. The last grand solar minimum – the Maunder Minimum – is thought to have contributed to what is known as the “Little Ice Age” during the 17th and 18th Centuries.

The Maunder Minimum was a time of almost no sunspots from 1645-1715. It was a time of cooler winters in eastern North America and Europe when the Thames froze so solidly that horse-driven carriages were able to cross the river on the ice.

There is about a one-in-five chance of the Sun entering the same kind of cooling phase within the next 40 years, a new study shows.

“During the Maunder Minimum period there were runs of cold winters including 1684 which was the coldest winter recorded,” says Met Office long-range expert professor Adam Scaife. In fact, “there are signs that solar activity has been dropping over the past decade.”

More at the link. Suffice it to say, it appears "global warming" is getting old. Now, the scientists are moving on to a "mini ice age." 


The comments by these two men do not tell the whole story, and some comments are clearly opinion and not fact. The best way to watch this video is with the sound off. LOL:

Kroger: Stock Split; Dividend Increase; Buyback -- June 25, 205

Yesterday in my "this is not an investment site" segment, which has become a regular feature, sometime exceeding Bakken posts, it seems (unfortunately) -- however, a lot of the posts in "this is not an investment site" segment relate to the Bakken -- whatever -- what was I saying? Oh, yes. Yesterday in my "this is not an investment site" segment I mentioned Disney, Apple, and Netflix as elements of a couple of cool stories. A reader responded by saying that he has noticed something else: splits seem to be coming more popular / more frequent regardless of the pros and cons. I've noted the same thing (not in the energy sector, however) that splits seem to be announced more often lately. We saw a lot of this prior to the last bubble. Until recently, I had not seen many splits. I do not see this as another bubble. I remain inappropriately exuberant and optimistic about the US economy.

Back to splits. The reader noted that Kroger has just announced a split and raised its dividend AND a $500-million buyback plan:

Kroger Co. said Thursday it is raising its quarterly dividend, launching a 2-for-1 stock split and initiating a $500 million stock-buyback program as the grocery chain has reported stronger results in recent quarters.

All Kroger shareholders  as of July 6 will receive one additional common share for each share they hold around July 6. This split, the fifth in Kroger’s history, will increase the number of shares outstanding to 962 million from 481 million.

Again, for those who might have missed the first part, this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment or financial decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here. By the way, for the record, I have never held any shares in Netflix, Disney, or Kroger. I honestly can't recall if I bought Apple in the last year. I know I bought something expensive and faddish this past year and it might have been Apple. In fact, I think I did one day when it pulled back. If I did, I was really, really late to the game. But I know I have never bought Disney, Netflix, or Kroger. And don't plan to. (Obviously, I probably hold all these stocks indirectly in my various IRAs, pension, mutual funds, etc.)

As I told the reader, I won't get into the debate regarding stock splits, but I'm in the camp of those who love stock splits (unless they are reverse stock splits). 

Under-The-Lake Pipeline Okayed -- North Dakota -- June 25, 2015

Approved: 2.4 miles of pipeline under Lake Sakakawea.

The $105 million pipeline project, owned by Hess Corp., will convert an existing 8-inch pipeline to transfer crude oil produced in the Bakken. The section of pipeline runs for 2.4 miles and was buried six feet beneath the lake bottom in 1992.

The segment will connect with a 10-mile portion of new pipeline on the south side of the lake and with a 12.8-mile portion on the north side, which will transfer oil to the Ramberg Truck Facility near Tioga, North Dakota.

The new 12-inch pipeline sections will be buried at least five feet underground. The span of the completed system will have the capacity to transfer up to 76,000 barrels of oil per day.

Let's see:

• 10 miles on the south side
• 2.4 miles under the lake
• 12.8 miles on the north side
• total = 25.2 miles

$105 million / 25.2 miles = $4 million / mile of pipeline.

An earlier post regarding an unrelated pipeline suggested $1 to $2 million / mile. Let's say the pipeline north and south of the lake (22.8 miles was priced at $2 million / mile = $45.6 million, rounding to $50 million, leaves $55 million for the portion under the lake, or about $20 million/mile under the lake. I assume some of the cost, however, will be for improvements / additional storage / etc at either end of the pipeline. (Note: I often make simple arithmetic mistakes.)

It would be interesting to "know" how much of this $105 million is a positive impact on the local economy. Much of the cost, of course, goes for the pipeline itself which I imagine is bought out-of-state. Heavy equipment leased from in-state operators? Local contractors? Out-of-state contractors? Local workers; out-of-state contractors?

************************

Computations

12-inch-diameter/76,000 bbls/24 hours = 3,200 bbls/hour
2.4 miles = 5,280 x 2.4 x 12 = 152,064 inches long
V = 3.14 x 6^2 x 152,064 inches = 17 million cubic inches
17 million / 231 cubic inches = 74,000 gallons
1762 bbls = capacity
Twice its capacity every hour = flow rate


8-inch-diameter / flow rate not stated in the article
2.4 miles = 5,280 x 2.4 x 12 = 152,064 inches long
V = 3.14 x 4^2 x 152,064 inches = 7.6 million cubic inches
7.6 million cubic inches = 33,000 gallons
785 bbls = capacity
If same flow rate, twice 785 = 1570 bbls/hour (I assume the flow rate is actually less in a smaller-diameter pipe)

Random Update On Norwegian Crude Oil Production -- June 25, 2015

Rigzone staff is reporting: Norwegian Production Figures Hit Lowest Point since September 2014.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s (NPD) preliminary production figures for May 2015 have revealed that average daily production (ADP) of oil, NGL and condensate hit its lowest point last month since September 2014.

ADP of oil, NGL and condensate was around 1.86 million barrels for May, which was 85,000 barrels per day, or 0.4 percent, less than in April 2015.

The last time daily production figures were lower than in May this year was September 2014, when preliminary production figures indicated an average daily oil, NGL and condensate production of around 1.83 million barrels.

Compared to May 2014, the latest figures from the NPD seemed positive. Last year’s preliminary May figures revealed an average daily production of around 1.66 million barrels of oil, NGL and condensate, which was 282,000 barrels per day, or 14 percent, less than April 2014’s figures.

The headline is worse than its bite, I suppose: "lowest point since September, 2014." But month-over-month, only a 0.4% decline; hardly remarkable. And year-over-year, production actually increased. (Note: I often make mistakes in simple arithmetic.)

Too many numbers; too confusing. Here is the data easily "spelled" out:

• April, 2014: 1.94 million boepd
• May, 2014: 1.66 million boepd
• April, 2015: 1.94 million boepd
• May, 2015: 1.86 million boepd

*************************************

Wabash Waltz, Slim Whitman and Byron Whitman

Have We Weathered The Worst? -- June 25, 2015

EIA "energy cookie":

Increased refinery runs—based on increases in both capacity and utilization—have helped accommodate increases in U.S. crude oil production. The United States' capacity to refine crude oil into petroleum products—measured as operable atmospheric crude distillation unit (CDU) capacity—increased by 0.2% in 2014, reaching 18.0 million barrels per calendar day (b/d), according to EIA's recently released annual Refinery Capacity Report. --- EIA  

The Calumet-MDU refinery west of Dickinson will raise that percentage next year.
 

 *********************************

WPX Remains Bullish On The Bakken

From a press release:

WPX plans to increase its activity in the Williston Basin during the second half of 2015 by resuming completions and increasing its rig count from one to three before year-end.
The decision follows significant process improvements, structural changes to lower costs, successful discussions with key vendors, a technical analysis of WPX’s well performance that led to higher estimated ultimate recoveries (EURs) and favorable results from larger stimulations.

WPX has rapidly driven costs out of its Williston operations. The company’s estimated drilling and completion costs in the basin are approaching $8 million per well with 6 million pound completions, representing a decrease of more than 30 percent vs. its average in 2014.

The company is now recognizing a blended type curve of approximately 750 Mboe for its wells in the Middle Bakken and Three Forks formations, up 25 percent per well from previous estimates of 600 Mboe. This is based on historical well performance and the success of incremental completion changes WPX performed in late 2014.

Comments:

• I wouldn't read too much into "resuming completions." I think most expected this. There is a short window of opportunity before winter sets it
• increasing rigs is very interesting, however; if they follow through with this, it will be a huge story

*********************************

WMB Will Get Bought This Year -- Nice Graphics Over At Seeking Alpha

Link here.  One may want to archive the article at the link.

Gasoline Demand; NG Fill Rate -- June 25, 2015

Links are dynamic.

Gasoline demand:

I'm still betting that the US will set new records for gasoline demand this summer which we will see in August.

Natural gas fill rate: 75. Still barely above the 5-year average.

Stocks were 695 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 35 Bcf above the 5-year average of 2,473 Bcf. In the East Region, stocks were 103 Bcf below the 5-year average following net injections of 53 Bcf. 

Last week, the national fill rate was 89, and the east region reported stocks were 102  Bcf below the 5-year average. 

Having said that, I believe all stocks are well above last year's numbers. Could be wrong.

Supreme Courts Upholds ObamaCare; 6-3 -- Not Even Close

Updates

Later, 10:09 a.m. CT: moments after writing the last paragraph in the post below, this was the top headline over at Drudge: hospital, insurance stocks surging. Investors should be thrilled with outcome. Now, if we could just "ignore" Greece.

Original Post

The AP is reporting: Supreme Court upholds nationwide health care law subsidies.

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide tax subsidies under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, in a ruling that preserves health insurance for millions of Americans.

The justices said in a 6-3 ruling that the subsidies that 8.7 million people currently receive to make insurance affordable do not depend on where they live, under the 2010 health care law.

The outcome is the second major victory for Obama in politically charged Supreme Court tests of his most significant domestic achievement. It came the same day the court gave the administration an unexpected victory by preserving a key tool the administration uses to fight housing bias.

From my May 1, 2015, blog: My hunch: the Court will uphold the law. I also posted that it would be a 6 - 3 decision. On June 8, 2015, I posted:

Between now and the end of the month we are going to see a lot of stories on how ObamaCare will be eviscerated if the Supreme Court decision is based on law, and not politics. The stories are being published as a last-ditch attempt to influence the court. As an example, the lead story in today's Los Angeles Times says the world will come to an end as we know it if the court rules "against" ObamaCare. I will let you in on a secret. Promise not to tell anyone.  The court has already decided. It's a 6-3 decision. All they are doing now is dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Or are they rolling their eyes and crossing their fingers that riots don't break out? 

Whoopee.  However, in another post regarding same subject, I was wrong: I thought the court would find a way to throw this back to Congress to fix.

The 6 - 3 margin is important; no argument which way the court "voted" on this. A 5 - 4 would have left a bit of room to quibble. Time to move on; let the market decide this. Words no longer matter.

Words, The Bee Gees
This is not an investment site. Do not make any investment or financial decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

There are going to be some huge winners with this Supreme Court decision. It pretty much ends debate on ObamaCare. Big Pharma and Big Health won.

Russia Becomes Top Oil Supplier To China; Overtakes Saudi; Saudi Slips To Third -- June 25, 2015

A huge "thank you" to a reader for sending me this link.

This is quite an incredible story. Note the third paragraph in the story being reported by Financial Times:

Russia was China’s largest supplier of crude oil for the first time on record in May, as Moscow looks beyond Europe for customers and grows its ties in the east.

The country leapfrogged Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, sending almost 930,000 barrels a day to China, up 21 per cent since April, according to customs data published on Tuesday. 

Saudi Arabia dropped from the top spot to number three, below even Angola, with sales falling to 722,000 b/d, down almost 43 per cent from the month before.

Sino-Russian ties have warmed as sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine have strained Moscow’s relations with the west.

China is adding refining capacity to meet its energy needs and demographic changes are set to propel oil demand in years to come.

Many, many story lines.

The first story line: this was predicted years ago. Over at "Big Stories" I even have "The Global Power Shift: Russian-China Hegemony" or something to that effect.

If you go to that link one will see the last update: China's November (2014) Russian crude imports hit record high. That was six months ago. What a great blog.

But remember, this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment or financial decisions based on what you read here.

The second story line: where is all that Saudi oil going? We're being told that Saudi Arabia is pumping as fast as it can, hitting new records. We are also being told that US shale is displacing Saudi oil from the US market, and now Saudi slips in China. Where is all that Saudi production going? Two answers: a) internal consumption; and, b) displacing other OPEC suppliers from established markets.

The third story line: Saudi slips to third place, below Angola. The US imports about a million bbls of crude oil per day from Saudi Arabia (most recent figures available -- March 15, 2015 data). From Angola the US imports about 150,000 bopd. Saudi has a big American refinery along the US gulf
coast.

The fourth story line: Saudi Arabia is not in competition with the US frackers; they are in competition with their own OPEC partners. Which lead us to ...

... the fifth story line: OPEC is dead. It's every oil sheik and every banana republic dictator for himself.

The sixth story line: Saudi Arabia is in the fight for its life -- ISIS and ISIS-wannabes -- not be confused with Saudi Wahhabis -- are lurking inside and outside the kingdom's borders.

The seventh story line: Saudi's cash flow....

The eighth story line: China's "demographic changes are set to propel oil demand in years to come." I wish I would have said that. LOL.

Not in this story: remember, Saudi Arabia has just "delayed" its $109 billion solar program to provide energy for desalination. It turns out the panels are not yet ready to handle the sandstorms.

Yup, there's a stranger in Saudi's house...

There's A Stranger In My House, Ronnie Milsap

Thursday, Part II -- June 25, 2015

I guess this is why I was surprised by the earlier stories that hydroelectric power was struggling across the US, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. There had been reports of a fair amount of spring run-off this year. Yes, I know the two are unrelated, but ...

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

Spring rainfall that boosted the flow of the Bighorn and Powder rivers, both tributaries to the Yellowstone River, has prompted a reduction in releases from Fort Peck Reservoir in northeast Montana.

Fort Peck backs up the Missouri River, but the Missouri and Yellowstone flow into Lake Sakakawea, just over the border in North Dakota.

With the Powder River hitting a peak of about 9,000 cubic feet per second earlier this month and the Bighorn still cranking out about 13,900 cfs, it was decided to cut the flows from Fort Peck to help offset the heavier flows into Sakakawea from the Yellowstone River basin. The Yellowstone River at Sidney peaked at about 60,000 cfs in the first week of June.

Fort Peck’s elevation was 2,237 feet on Wednesday with releases from the dam at 9,400 cfs instead of the 10,000 cfs that was planned last month.

For those interested, this is the link to the daily Garrison Dam releases (a dynamic link).  Today's scheduled release: 21,000 cfs. This takes me back to one of my favorite posts. Google "Garrison" at the blog to see a fair number of posts on Garrison Dam releases, such as this one. I guess I have a "Garrison Dam" tag also.

Don sent me the link years ago and it remains one of my favorites.

Thursday, June 25, 2015; Breaking News -- Families Will Save $7.30 This Holiday Weekend On Gasoline Prices (Compared To Last Year)

Thursdays are my busiest days -- there is always so much news coming out on Thursdays.

For newbies, I post and update, post and update. There will be factual and typographical errors, but as the posts are updated, hopefully there are fewer errors.

So, let's get started. The best story of the day was sent to me by a reader. I will probably post it as a stand-alone post -- it's on Russia and oil.

Spending. Reuters is reporting:  U.S. consumer spending posts largest gain in nearly six years.

U.S. consumer spending recorded its largest increase in nearly six years in May on strong demand for automobiles and other big-ticket items, further evidence that economic growth was gathering momentum in the second quarter.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday consumer spending increased 0.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since August 2009, after an upwardly revised 0.1 percent rise in April.

Jobs.

This is always my favorite because the stories are all boiler-plate; they've been written in advance with only the data waiting to be filled in. The best part is the spin. Today, the initial jobless claims over at Seeking Alpha without commentary: it appears that both the revised number for last week and the number for this week have increased. Last week's number was revised upward by 1,000; this week's number is up 3,000 to 271,000. That is slightly better than the consensus.

Most interesting: continuing claims up 22,000 vs 2.25 million prior.

The four-week average fell 3,250 to 273,750.

Active rigs:

	6/25/2015	06/25/2014	06/25/2013	06/25/2012	06/25/2011
Active Rigs	76	193	187	213	170

This is about as low as the rig count has ever gotten; I believe the post-boom low is 75.

RBN Energy: Canadian natural gas struggling.

***************************

Gasoline demand. The AP is reporting:  Stronger economy, cheap gas expected to spur holiday travel.

An estimated 41.9 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home during the holiday weekend, up 0.7 percent from last year and the most since 2007, right before the recession, according to travel agency and car lobbying group AAA.

More spin.  From the linked article:

As usual, the vast majority of travelers will be using their cars: about 85 percent. Gas currently costs $2.78 a gallon, down 88 cents from the same time last year. That means a family driving 200 miles on highways will save about $7.30 for their holiday gas this year.

LOL. Does one really think this is newsworthy? A family of four will save $7.30 over the four-day weekend (longer for some) because of lower gasoline prices. Hello. With crude oil at record lows, gasoline is still higher than it should be, and unfortunately the price of gasoline is trending up. Gasoline was nearing the $2.00 mark earlier this spring in our neighborhood, and is now back up to nearly $3.00 ($2.79, to be exact). A coffee and croissant at Starbucks will cost about $7.30.