OPEC Basket, WTI Plunge -- At Least That's How Many Will Report It; WTI Drops Below $37 -- October 2, 2020

Well, that was easy: top story of the week. President Trump and wife test positive for Chinese flu. For the archives. Tea leaves: no more presidential debates. That was it. Had the first debate received overwhelmingly positive reviews, there would be a chance there would be one last debate prior to the election, but the reviews suggest Americans have seen enough, don't need another debate. So, we'll call it (the one and only debate) good, and move on.

OPEC basket, link here: wow, huge drop. Falls below $40. OSP at $39.94.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$36.99	10/2/2020	10/02/2019	10/02/2018	10/02/2017	10/02/2016
Active Rigs	11	59	65	57	33

Two wells coming off the confidential list:

Friday, October 2, 2020: 2 for the month; 2 for the quarter, 667 for the year

• 37078, drl/A, Whiting, Oddie 44-7HU, Sanish, no production data,
• 36927, drl/A, Kraken, Black Federal 33-28 7H,33-053-09202, Antelope-Sanish, t--; cum 259K 7/20; a 68K well; see this post;
  

RBN Energy: summer gasoline, winter gasoline, and Reid vapor pressure. Archived here.

If you’ve filled up the tank in your car, SUV, or pickup in the past few days, you probably bought your first batch of winter-blend gasoline since the spring. It’s unlikely that you noticed a difference — only a refining geek with a nose for this sort of thing would — but winter gasoline has a higher Reid Vapor Pressure than summer gasoline, and therefore evaporates more quickly and emits more fumes. There’s a logic to EPA’s mandated switchover from lower-RVP gasoline to higher-RVP gasoline each September, and their switch back to lower-RVP each April/May. For one thing, using different gasoline blends during the colder and warmer months helps ensure that your engine runs well year-round; for another, reducing gasoline vapor pressure in the summer reduces emissions that contribute to smog. Today, we discuss gasoline RVP, why it matters, and how refineries ramp it up and down. (A hint is in the blog’s title.)