For Americans filling up at the pump, making sense of gasoline prices can be confusing. Here's a simple explanation: the price of crude oil is the main factor in determining the price of gasoline.

Since April 20, 2009, the price of crude oil has climbed 46 cents a gallon, and the price of gasoline has risen 41 cents a gallon.

For more information about the impact of crude oil on the price of gasoline, take a look at the dollar bill graphic below.

Also factored into the pump price are refining, marketing and transportation costs, and taxes. In fact, every time U.S. motorists pull up to the pump, they pay nearly 46 cents in taxes per gallon of gasoline.

Other factors --such as demand, gasoline inventory and import levels, and the effect of weather on production and refinery oper... more »

A new study by the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) found that state regulations governing oil and natural gas field operations are "adequately designed" to protect ground water. The study, "State Oil and Natural Gas Regulations Designed to Protect Water Resources," was a collaborative effort between GWPC, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Its goal was to examine the language of state oil and natural gas regulations and evaluate it with respect to water resource protection.

Why is this important? A few news articles in recent months have questioned the efficacy of the regulations and have asserted that certain oil and natural gas operations could be harmful to drinking water. These articles have focused primarily on the practice... more »

In this week's episode, I talk with Tim Sampson, manager for exploration and production at API, and Roland Goodman, manager of upstream standards at API, about how the oil and natural gas industry prepares for storms during hurricane season. Use the audio player below to listen, and follow along with the show notes. I hope you find it informative.

Feel free to leave a question in the comments section of this post.

Show Notes:

00:15 Jane discusses forecasts for this year's hurricane season and welcomes Tim Sampson and Roland Goodman - both of API - to EnergyTomorrow Radio.

01:10 There are about 3,800 production platforms in federal waters offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and about 20 off the coast of California. There are 74 drilling rigs operating offshore.

01:39 In the industry's h... more »

Last week, I had the pleasure of hosting 15 bloggers on a conference call about the challenges of deepwater exploration and the impact of these projects on the U.S. economy.

The conversation featured Robert N. (Bobby) Ryan, Jr., vice president of global exploration for Chevron Global Upstream & Gas and also included API Chief Economist John Felmy and API Federal Relations Director Mark Kibbe.

Bloggers who participated in the call include:

• Alan Stewart Carl, Donklephant
• Bob McCarty, Bob McCarty Writes
• Brian Westenhaus, New Energy and Fuel
• Bruce McQuain, The QandO Blog
• Buster Cagney, The Oil Drum
• Chris Nelder, GetRealList
• David Murphy, The Oil Drum
• Devil's Advocate, Right Wing News
• Geoff Styles, Energy Outlook
• Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit
• Joy McCann, Little Miss Attila
• Krystle, Bearing Drift an... more »

...that the United States imports more oil from Canada than any other country? More than two million barrels of oil a day comes from our neighbor to the north, and much of that oil is derived from Canada's abundant oil sands. Technological advances in oil extraction have allowed Canada to become the world's second largest holder of recoverable oil reserves behind Saudi Arabia.

A new report from Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) notes that the pace of oil sands development has far exceeded expectations.

Fifteen years ago, it was believed that oil sands production might exceed one million barrels a day. Now forecasts say production could reach four million barrels a day by 2020, and up to 37 percent of U.S. oil imports could be crude oil derived from oil sands by 2035. CERA's repor... more »