NA Oil & Gas Weekly Briefing

📋 Data: EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report — Week Ending September 11, 2026 (Released September 16, 2026, on normal Wednesday schedule). All KPIs below independently confirmed directly via the EIA API v2 (seriesid endpoints) this run, and cross-validated against BOE Report's coverage of the same WPSR release (crude stock draw, Cushing draw, export jump, refinery/utilization declines all matched exactly). No re-benchmarking adjustment this week — production is essentially flat w/w.

Crude Stocks

423.4

▼ -0.6 mb w/w

mln bbls | ~1% above 5yr avg (EIA)

Cushing, OK

21.5

▼ -0.3 mb w/w

mln bbls WTI hub

US Production

13.94

◆ -0.00 mb/d w/w (flat)

mb/d (EIA WCRFPUS2; no re-benchmark this wk)

Refinery Inputs

17.33

▼ -0.26 mb/d w/w

mb/d crude throughput

Utilization Rate

96.8%

▼ -1.0 ppt w/w

% operable capacity

Crude Imports

7.06

▲ +0.23 mb/d w/w

mb/d

Crude Exports

4.83

▲ +1.41 mb/d w/w

mb/d (confirmed via EIA API v2 + BOE Report)

WTI Prompt Spread

+$3.23

confirmed via CME Globex, Sep 21

M1–M2 $/bbl (Oct26 $94.92 – Nov26 $91.69) · live CME Globex quotes

SPR Stocks

285.0

▼ -0.4 mb w/w

mln bbls | fresh multi-decade low continues

Supply / Demand Balance Week Ending September 11, 2026 | mb/d

DEMAND (Disposition)
Refinery Throughput (Crude Inputs)	17.33
Crude Exports	4.83
Total Crude Disposition	~22.16
SUPPLY
US Field Production	13.94
Crude Imports	7.06
SPR Release (WCSSTUS1 draw)	+0.40
Condensate & NGL (est.)	~0.50
Total Supply	~21.90
Net Implied Balance (Actual EIA Stock Chg.)	-0.6 mb (draw)

Product Stocks	Current (mb)	W/W Chg	vs 5yr Avg
Crude Oil (excl. SPR)	423.4	-0.6	+0.8%
Cushing, OK (WTI hub)	21.5	-0.3	—
Motor Gasoline (Total)	207.7	+0.8	-4.8%
Distillate Fuel Oil	107.9	+1.6	-13.1%
Propane/Propylene	109.1	-1.4	+22.3%
Refinery Throughput	17.33 mb/d	-0.26	—
Utilization Rate	96.8%	-1.0 ppt	—

✅ Confirmed via EIA API v2 (WPSR week ending September 11, 2026), cross-validated against BOE Report. Gasoline, distillate, and propane/propylene stocks above confirmed via the same source. WTI Prompt Spread freshly confirmed via live CME Globex quotes: +$3.23/bbl (Oct26–Nov26, Sep 21, 2026).

Crude Oil Commercial Inventory Trend Million Barrels | Recent Weeks

US Commercial Crude Inventories vs 5-Year Average

Most recent confirmed: 423.4 mb (September 11, 2026), ~1% above the 5-yr seasonal average per EIA nearest-date computation. Shaded band = actual 5-yr seasonal min/max envelope (weekly high/low, 2021–2025). Weeks 1–16 from prior reporting; weeks 17–37 confirmed from EIA WPSR. Source: EIA WPSR.

📋 Data: EIA Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report — Week Ending September 11, 2026 (Released September 17, 2026, 10:30am ET, on schedule). National total confirmed via EIA API v2; full regional breakdown (East/Midwest/Mountain/Pacific/South Central, incl. South Central salt/nonsalt split) confirmed via IndexBox's direct republication of the EIA report text, and reconciles exactly to the API total (3,298 Bcf). 5-yr average (3,180 Bcf) and year-ago comparison as published by EIA. HH Summer–Winter spread freshly confirmed via live CME Globex quotes this run (-$0.42/MMBtu, Oct26 vs Nov26-Mar27, Sep 21, 2026), up slightly from the prior -$0.43 carried-forward figure. Storage chart y-axis now auto-scales to the plotted data range in both the 12-week and 2-year views, so no series is clipped.

Working Gas in Storage

3,298

▲ +44 Bcf w/w

Bcf | Week ending Sep 11

W/W Injection

+44

Implied flow +44 Bcf (EIA)

Bcf | 5yr avg level: 3,180 Bcf

vs 5-Year Average

+118

▼ Surplus narrowed w/w (was +148)

Bcf above 5yr avg (3,180 Bcf, EIA)

vs Year Ago

-122

Deficit widened further this week

Bcf vs Sep 12, 2025 (EIA)

Dry Gas Production

~111

Near record high (carried forward, 9 wks stale)

Bcf/d (EIA STEO Jun 2026 est., carried forward)

LNG Exports

~17.2

2026 annual avg (carried forward, 9 wks stale)

Bcf/d (2026 avg, EIA STEO Jun 2026)

Season Start Storage

1,829

Injection season

Bcf (late March 2026)

Regional Detail

5/5

All regions confirmed via EIA report text

East/Midwest/Mtn/Pacific/S.Central — EIA

HH Summer–Winter

-$0.42

confirmed via CME Globex, Sep 21

O26(Oct)–W26/27(Nov-Mar) $/MMBtu · live CME Globex quotes

Storage Trend & Regional Breakdown

US Natural Gas Storage ~12 Weeks

Most recent confirmed national total: 3,298 Bcf (September 11, 2026), confirmed via EIA Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. 5-yr avg (3,180 Bcf) as published by EIA. 2-year view: last week-ending of each month — no new month has completed since August 2026, so not appended this run. Source: EIA WNGSR.

Storage Region	Sep 11 (Bcf)	W/W Chg	vs 5yr Avg
East	795	+22	+5.7%
Midwest	934	+26	+3.9%
Mountain	241	+2	+7.6%
Pacific	289	-1	+9.9%
South Central	1,039	-5	-0.2%
Total US	3,298	+44	+118

✅ National total (3,298 Bcf, +44 Bcf w/w) confirmed via EIA API v2; full regional breakdown confirmed via IndexBox's direct republication of the EIA report text, reconciling exactly to the API total. Within South Central, salt storage fell 5 Bcf to 222 Bcf while nonsalt storage was unchanged at 817 Bcf; South Central overall ran -11.2% below year-ago and -0.2% vs 5yr avg.

Production & LNG Flow
Dry Gas Production (est.)	~111 Bcf/d
LNG Exports (2026 avg, STEO Jun)	~17.2 Bcf/d
Pipeline Exports to Mexico	6.35 Bcf/d
Pipeline Exports to Canada	3.88 Bcf/d
EIA N9132MX2 / N9132CN2 · Mar 2026 (carried forward)
Fcst Incremental LNG 2026	0.00 Bcf/d
Fcst Incremental LNG 2027	+1.40 Bcf/d
STEO NGEXPUS_LNG · 2026 avg 17.2, 2027 avg 18.6 Bcf/d

📋 Data: Statistics Canada (June 2026, Tables 25-10-0063-01 & 25-10-0086-01) · Baker Hughes Rig Count (week ending September 18, 2026) · AESO Connection Project List (September 2026) · CAPP industry overview · AECO Fwd Basis via gasalberta.com's AECO C Futures Pricing chart. Canadian production/export data is monthly — periods labeled below.

Crude Oil Production

~5.37

▲ +3.1% YoY (prior month)

mb/d | June 2026 (monthly, StatsCan, unchanged)

Crude Exports

~4.35

▲ +6.4% YoY (June 2026, unchanged)

mb/d | June 2026 StatsCan release (reconfirmed)

Rig Count (Oil)

134

▼ -7 w/w (confirmed)

rigs | Week Ending September 18, 2026

Rig Count (Gas)

▼ -3 w/w (confirmed)

rigs | Week Ending September 18, 2026

LNG Overseas Exports

~1.84 Bcf/d

June 2026 level, unchanged this run

June 2026 · 58.3M GJ · StatsCan Aug 31, 2026

Gas Exports to US

~7.89 Bcf/d

▼ -7.9% YoY (June 2026, unchanged)

June 2026 · 250.2M GJ · StatsCan Aug 31, 2026

AECO Fwd Basis

-$1.74

confirmed via gasalberta.com chart, Sep 21

Oct-26 AECO fwd ($1.46 CAD/GJ) vs Oct-26 HH ($2.838) · 1.4020 USD/CAD

Canadian Natural Gas & Large Load Tracker Natural gas: June 2026 (StatsCan/CER) | Large load: AESO Connection List, Sep 2026

Natural Gas & LNG	Value	Notes
Marketable Gas Production	~22.1 Bcf/d	June 2026, StatsCan (unchanged this run, +7.9% YoY)
LNG Canada Phase 1	~1.8 Bcf/d	Operational since Jul 2025, Kitimat BC
LNG Export Destination	Asia-Pacific	Japan, Korea, China primary
Storage (Western Canada, AB+BC)	~615 Bcf	End-Jun 2026; StatCan Table 25-10-0086
AECO Fwd Price	$1.46 CAD/GJ	Oct-26 fwd · gasalberta.com chart (pixel-read)

Alberta Large Load (Data Centre) Tracker
Requested (Data Load projects)	21,310 MW	42 projects
Phase 1 Allocated	1,200 MW	Fully allocated
Remaining in Queue (est.)	~20,110 MW	~94% of requested
Stage 1 (Early Study)	7,676 MW	16 projects
Stage 2 (Advanced Study)	13,634 MW	26 projects

Large Load Connection Queue & Natural Gas Storage AESO Connection Project List Sep 2026 · CER Western Canada Gas Storage

Data Load Connection Queue — Requests to Study Stage

Source: AESO Connection Project List, September 2026 (aeso.ca/grid/transmission-projects/connection-project-reporting), filtered to MW Type = "Data Load". Full project-level detail: AESO Connection Project Dashboard.

Western Canada Natural Gas Inventories vs Historical Range

Source: Statistics Canada Table 25-10-0086-01 (closing inventory, Alberta + British Columbia, converted GJ→Bcf), current through June 2026. Shaded band = 5-yr seasonal high/low range by calendar month (2021–2025).

📋 Data: Baker Hughes Weekly Rig Count — Week Ending September 18, 2026 (released September 18, 2026). The local Rig Counts sync folder still only held the September 11 workbook, so this week's workbook was downloaded directly from rigcount.bakerhughes.com's own static-file link and parsed in full (NAM Summary + NAM Breakdown sheets) — every figure below, including Gulf of Mexico and the Canada oil/gas sub-split, is freshly confirmed this run, none carried forward.

US Total Rigs

595

▲ +4 w/w

Week Ending Sep 18 | second straight weekly gain

US Oil Rigs

452

▲ +2 w/w

Highest since late August

US Gas Rigs

134

▲ +2 w/w

Highest since late August

Gulf of Mexico

▼ -1 w/w (confirmed, offshore GoM)

Misc./drilling-type category (national): 9, flat w/w

Canada Total

197

▼ -10 w/w (confirmed)

Week Ending Sep 18, 2026

Canada Oil Rigs

134

▼ -7 w/w (confirmed)

Oil-directed

Canada Gas Rigs

▼ -3 w/w (confirmed)

Gas-directed

NA Total

792

▼ -6 w/w

North America combined

Rig Count Detail & Breakdown

Category	Count	W/W Chg	YoY Chg
United States
Oil Rigs	452	+2	+34
Gas Rigs	134	+2	+16
Gulf of Mexico (offshore)	5	-1	-5
Major Basins (US)
Permian	269	+1	+15
Haynesville	56	-1	+17
Eagle Ford	51	0	+9
Williston	35	+3	+6
US Total	595	+4	+53 (+10%)
Canada
Oil Rigs	134	-7	+6
Gas Rigs	62	-3	+2
Misc	1	0	0
Canada Total	197	-10	+8
North America Total	792	-6	+61

Rig Count by Category — Week Ending September 18, 2026

Source: Baker Hughes North America Rig Count. Weekly release every Friday.

📋 Data: NYMEX WTI Physical and WTI Financial (ICE Europe) — both genuine Managed Money, confirmed as of September 15, 2026, pulled directly from cftc.gov/dea/futures/petroleum_sf.htm (released September 18, 2026; `curl -I` Last-Modified header showed 19:27:18 GMT ≈ 3:27 PM ET, right on the normal Friday release window). ICE Brent Crude financial positioning remains removed from this tab (per the September 4, 2026 structural change) — this page tracks WTI-only Managed Money positioning (NYMEX Physical + ICE Europe Financial). CFTC reports Tuesday positions, released the following Friday.

NYMEX WTI Physical Net

+106.3k

contracts (net long; confirmed Sep 15)

▼ -5.5k w/w — narrowed via short-building, not long liquidation

ICE Europe WTI Financial Net

-10.0k

contracts (net short; confirmed Sep 15)

▼ -0.3k w/w — net short position widened slightly

Combined WTI (NYMEX + ICE Europe)

+96.3k

contracts (net long; both legs confirmed Sep 15)

▼ -5.8k w/w — two-week build streak snapped

WTI NYMEX Long / Short Ratio

1.92x

longs vs shorts (Managed Money)

L 222k vs S 116k (Sep 15, 2026)

Managed Money Positioning — WTI (NYMEX + ICE Europe) Thousands of contracts | Jan 2021 – Sep 2026

Weekly. EIA series RWTC (Cushing, OK WTI spot price FOB, US$/bbl). Each point is the week-ending Friday price preceding the corresponding CFTC report date. Shares the x-axis of the positioning chart above.

WTI Short WTI Long Net

Values in thousands of contracts. WTI Physical from CFTC Disaggregated COT (NYMEX; managed money) — confirmed genuine Managed Money through Sep 15, 2026 (Long 221.9k / Short 115.6k / Net +106.3k), down from +111.7k the prior week. Source: CFTC Disaggregated COT (publicreporting.cftc.gov, cftc.gov/dea/futures/petroleum_sf.htm). ICE Brent Crude financial positioning remains removed from this chart and this tab — the historical brentL/brentS series is not plotted or tracked.

✅ Methodology note: This chart plots WTI Physical (NYMEX) Managed Money — CFTC's single largest WTI contract — as the stacked Long/Short area with a Net line overlay. The smaller ICE Europe WTI Financial contract (OI 753.4k) is tracked separately in the KPI cards and the detailed positions table below, and combined into the "Combined WTI (NYMEX + ICE Europe)" figures, but is not separately plotted on this chart. ICE Brent Crude (ICE Futures Europe's own Commitments of Traders Report, published separately from CFTC) remains removed from this dashboard.

Detailed Positions Table As of Sep 15, 2026 | CFTC Disaggregated COT

Contract / Exchange	MM Longs	MM Shorts	Net Position	W/W Longs	W/W Shorts	W/W Net Δ	Open Interest	Signal
WTI Physical (NYMEX) Managed Money	221,896	115,617	+106,279	+2,936	+8,388	-5,452	1,955,764	Net Long — Narrowing (Short-Led)
WTI Financial (ICE Europe) Managed Money	20,195	30,217	-10,022	+5,713	+6,048	-335	753,881	Net Short — Widening
Combined WTI (NYMEX + ICE Europe, Managed Money)	242,091	145,834	+96,257	+8,649	+14,436	-5,787	—	Net Long — Narrowing (Both Legs Softer)

EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) · EIA Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report · CFTC Commitments of Traders · Baker Hughes North America Rig Count · Statistics Canada Energy Statistics · CAPP Data Centre · Canada Energy Regulator (CER) · EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook (April 2026)

Disclaimer: Generated for the week of September 18, 2026, on schedule with no tooling disruptions this run. US crude/product stocks, production, refinery, imports/exports, and natural gas storage (incl. full regional breakdown) are all independently confirmed directly from the EIA API v2 for the week ending September 11, 2026, and cross-validated against secondary press coverage of the same EIA releases (figures matched exactly). Baker Hughes rig counts are freshly confirmed for week ending September 18, 2026, downloaded directly from Baker Hughes' own site and parsed from the full workbook (NAM Summary + NAM Breakdown) — no figures carried forward this week, including the Canada oil/gas sub-split and Gulf of Mexico. CFTC Disaggregated COT data for NYMEX WTI Physical and ICE Europe WTI Financial (both genuine Managed Money) confirmed as of September 15, 2026, sourced directly from cftc.gov/dea/futures/petroleum_sf.htm (`curl -I` Last-Modified header confirmed the report posted on schedule, ~3:27 PM ET). ICE Brent Crude financial positioning remains removed from this dashboard entirely. Statistics Canada's energy statistics (June 2026 reference month, released August 31, 2026) and AESO's Connection Project List (September 2026 list, updated 2026-09-01) were both directly reconfirmed this run and found unchanged from the prior week — no newer releases exist yet. WTI Prompt Spread (+$3.23/bbl, Oct26-Nov26) and HH Summer-Winter Spread (-$0.42/MMBtu) were both freshly reconfirmed via live CME Globex quotes on September 21, 2026 — browser access to cmegroup.com, unavailable during the September 18 scheduled/unattended run, was available this interactive session. AECO Fwd Basis (-$1.74/MMBtu, Oct26 vs Oct26) was likewise freshly reconfirmed this run via gasalberta.com's AECO C Futures Pricing chart, read via in-browser pixel analysis since the chart has no machine-readable underlying data (see Canada tab data-notice for methodology). Western Canada natural gas storage now sources from Statistics Canada (Table 25-10-0086-01, Alberta+BC, current through June 2026) in place of the CER Market Snapshot, which had gone stale. Some data points remain carried forward where fresher figures were not available this run, including dry gas production/LNG export STEO estimates (now nine weeks stale). Data-quality note: this week's freshly-downloaded Baker Hughes workbook revealed that the September 11, 2026 dashboard's Canada rig figures (204 total / 140 oil / 62 gas) had been carried forward stale pending that week's workbook — the actual September 11 figures were 207 total / 141 oil / 65 gas / 1 misc, per the workbook's own "Last Week" column; this is noted here for transparency and does not retroactively change the published September 11 file. Always verify against primary sources before trading or investment decisions. Kaibur Consulting — Internal Use Only.

🛢️ North America Oil & Gas Weekly Briefing