Gasoline prices are near their highest ever, rising 20 cents in the last month to $4.33 per gallon. That's just a penny less than the highest national average ever, reached March 11. Diesel prices are up fifty cents over a month ago to reach a new record of $5.54 per gallon nationwide. Diesel is going for $5.30 across Kansas. Average gasoline prices across the state are still well below four dollars a gallon, but we spotted several stations in Hays above that mark. Motorists in Great Bend are paying just under four dollars.  The benchmark Nymex crude futures contract settled Friday just under $110 per barrel, a gain of more than a dollar and a half on the day. But by lunchtime Monday, light sweet crude for June delivery was down nearly five dollars, trading at a few pennies under $104 per barrel. London Brent was down about four percent, to $107.88 per barrel.  Kansas crude prices are the highest since late March, and $5 higher than at the start of this month, and. Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson gained $1.50 on Friday, and started the week at $100 per barrel. So far this year 126 Kansas operators have spudded 446 new wells, an increase of 95% over last year. Independent Oil & Gas Service is scouting 376 wells in various stages of drilling and completion. The Rig Count in Kansas was unchanged at 20 in the eastern half of the state, while the tally west of Wichita was down two for the week at 29 active drilling rigs. In Barton County, drilling was underway on one lease, and operators were about to spud another. Kansas regulators okayed 16 new drilling permits during the week through May 5th. There are five new drilling locations east of Wichita and 11 in Western Kansas. That's 502 new permits so far this year. Operators completed 20 new wells last week across Kansas. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports seven completed wells in eastern Kansas and 13 in the western half of the state, including one in Ellis County. The Kansas Corporation Commission reports 122 new intent-to-drill notices last month. That's 511 new intents so far this year compared to 313 through April last year. There are five new drilling notices on file in Barton County and two in Stafford County. Oklahoma could soon join Texas in efforts to divest from companies that divest from the patch. State senators in Oklahoma gave their okay last week to a bill that would require the state to divest from any financial company that boycotts the energy industry. It's called the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act of 2022. It returns to the House of Representatives for final approval before heading to the governor his signature. A fight between the state of North Dakota and the Three Affiliated Tribes is escalating, with hundreds of millions of dollars in oil-and-gas revenues on the line. The state has filed to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the tribes over a stretch of land along the Missouri River. The Trump Administration reversed decades of administrative decisions and gave ownership of the land to the state. The Biden administration has since reversed that move. The weekly Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes was up five oil rigs and two gas rigs, for a total of 705 active drilling rigs in the US. The count in Louisiana was up four rigs. Oklahoma was up two, New Mexico was up one and Texas was down one. The government reports US crude inventories increased by 1.3 million barrels last week. The Energy Information Administration reports stockpiles of 415.7 million barrels as of April 29th. Inventories are about 15% below the five-year average for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 2.2 million barrels last week and are about 4% below the five year average for this time of year. EIA reported a drop in US crude-oil production last week. Output reached an average of 11.85 million barrels per day, down by 94,000 barrels per day. That total is nearly a million barrels per day higher than the tally from the same week last year. Crude-oil imports increased last week by nearly 397,000 barrels per day. US imports averaged 6.3 million barrels per day.  The average over the last four weeks was about 3.3% greater than during the same four weeks last year. The world's largest crude exporter slashed prices to Asia over the weekend due largely to the continuing COVID lockdowns in China. Saudi Aramco cut it's Asian prices by more than five dollars a barrel according to a company release on Sunday. This is the first price cut by the Saudis in four months. OPEC-Plus exporters on last week agreed to another small production increase for June. The alliance is raising targets for next month by 432,000 barrels per day, sticking to its existing strategy of gradually replacing production cuts from two years ago. Analysts tell CNBC that the group is happy with prices over $100 and doesn't want to threaten them with more substantial production increases. The meeting reportedly lasted just 13 minutes. The European Union is planning an embargo of Russian oil within six months, with refined products ending by the end of the year. Germany on Monday announced it would support the embargo despite its heavy reliance on Russian energy imports. So-called price triggers are expected to re-ignite a contentious debate when the North Dakota Legislative Assembly reconvenes in January, but that won't stop an estimated $372 million tax increase for the North Dakota oil patch next month. This comes in contrast to just a few years ago when low oil prices threatened to trigger a tax break for drillers that would have cost the state millions in lost revenue. The higher tax kicks in if the price of Nymex crude remains above $94.69 per barrel for a third straight month in May.  OPEC-Plus exporters on Thursday agreed to another small production increase for June. The alliance is raising targets for next month by 432,000 barrels per day, sticking to its existing strategy of gradually replacing production cuts from two years ago. Analysts tell CNBC that the group is happy with prices over $100 and doesn't want to threaten them with more substantial production increases. The meeting reportedly lasted just 13 minutes. The Association of American Railroads reports monthly oil-by-rail traffic in the US was down by about 17% in April amid a six percent decline in all rail traffic. Weekly traffic in the US was down 12% compared to the week before, at 8,824 tanker carloads. That's down 20% from the same week a year ago. Canadian traffic was up 627 carloads over last week, marking a 29 percent gain over a year ago.

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