PERMIAN BASIN (KMID/KPEJ) – Oil prices are up to $91.51 according to Bloomberg, while the rig count is down to 641 rigs running across the United States and 322 rigs in the Permian Basin.

This is more than a 30-cent difference from Wednesday afternoon in oil prices, while rigs are down 16% overall from last year.

“There are people affected with the lowering of the rig count, there’s no doubt, the people that work on those rigs, but I know every service company has worked with people overtime. So those people are getting displaced, but still the service companies are picking them back up. So they just need to stay aggressive with that they’re doing to get hired on somewhere else or the companies that were drilling. They were very unmanned 6 months to a year ago, what that really means is the workers getting they’re getting better workers now, more consistent work going on than we had before, over what is happening here right now for me, that’s going to continue on this year into next year right now,” said Kirk Edwards, Latigo Petroleum CEO.

Beginning this week, gas stations will be allowed to begin selling winter grade gasoline, which has been known to be less expensive. You shouldn’t expect prices to drop immediately, however, as there are several factors to consider.

“So, the cost of oil really shot up because of some decisions by Saudi Arabia and Russia so that really spiked the oil market. Texas has been in the middle of a real big heat wave and that’s affected refinery production,” said Julian Paredes from AAA.

AAA says the winter blend tends to be cheaper as it contains more Butane, which helps gas ignite in lower temperatures, at the potential cost of energy efficiency.

Currently, residents in Midland are paying $3.47 per gallon, while residents in Ector County are paying $3.41. People in Andrews are paying more at $3.54 a gallon while Howard County is only paying $3.31.