| The first Newsletter of 2015 has a new look! Dave Hackett offers an analysis of what has happened to gasoline prices in California since the Cap-and-Trade regulation took effect on January 1st. Our guest columnist, Dave Hirschfeld of MathPro, explains the government's rules of the crude oil and condensate export ban. Finally, the latest Bubble Map looks at creative storage solutions for crude oil. |
What Happened to California's Cap-and Trade Gasoline Price Hike?
Oil industry observers, including the Downstream Wizard, predicted that California retail gasoline prices would go up around New Year's Day as transportation fuels would come under California's Cap-and-Trade regulation. At current prices for carbon, Covered Entities like refiners and marketers who pay the tax on fuels, should be passing through about 10 cents per gallon (cpg) for gasoline and 12 cpg for diesel.
Looking at weekly retail reformulated gasoline price data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the last year, you can see that gasoline prices peaked in late April at about $4.25 per gallon and have headed steadily downward since the end of July. The only blip on the California price line is on January 5th, when retail gasoline prices hardly changed from the prior week. Average U.S. gasoline prices continued down that week. You can see the 6 cpg increase between California and U.S. average prices with the green dotted line. The downward trend resumed with the data on January 12th.
 |
The BIS Speaks Again: The Latest on the Crude Oil and Condensate Export Ban
Brought to you by
by Dave Hirshfeld, MathPro Inc.
2014 was a year of intense debate - political, economic, and technical - over repealing or revising the federal law and regulations that essentially ban the export of U.S. crude oil. The issue took an intriguing turn on December 30.
While the rest of us were gearing up to celebrate the New Year, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published answers to six FAQs in an effort to clarify federal law governing the export of crude oil and petroleum products.
In June of 2014, BIS had issued private rulings to Pioneer Natural Resources and Enterprise Products Partners, enabling them to export lease condensate that (presumably) had been processed in a field-located crude stabilizer. We say "presumably" because BIS has never published its June rulings.
|
Bubble Map Update: Crude Oil Oversupply Leads to Creative Storage Solutions
2015 kicks off with crude oil prices continuing to fall, having dropped over 50 percent since last June. It's great news for drivers as retail prices have dropped to a nationwide average of $2.05. And it doesn't seem like anything can stop this party. Even the dreaded California Cap-and-Trade price hike has yet to materialize.
|
