Tuesday was the $90 close

Wednesday was the next print. Front-month WTI traded $89.35 to $92.29 on the FT tape after settling $90.22 on Tuesday, the highest close since July 23. EIA’s Cushing spot for Tuesday, released today, is $91.48. Brent’s EIA spot for Tuesday is $96.02. Henry Hub spot is $2.90.

That is the price. It is not a new map.

The last government oil map that is actually on paper is still the August Short-Term Energy Outlook, completed Aug. 6 and released Aug. 11. Next STEO is Sept. 9. Until that one prints, converting a $91 handle into a November barrel count is a guess. The Hormuz file already said that. I will not say it twice as if it were new.

The Permian is the part that is not a guess.

East Daley’s post-1Q26 operator survey, published Aug. 25, has the basin growing 3.2 percent this year, or about 217,000 barrels a day, from an average 6.82 million in 2025 to about 7.05 million in 2026. Exxon Mobil is the growth engine in that survey: about 108,000 barrels a day of Permian oil growth, or roughly 44 percent of the basin-wide increase they captured. Chevron is modeled at about 5,000. Diamondback raised its own Permian growth guide to 4.5 percent.

That is a survey of operators. It is not the EIA monthly.

Mercer Capital’s second-quarter Permian note has the basin at 11.7 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in June 2026, up 4.7 percent from 11.1 million in June 2025. The same note has Permian rigs at 258 at the end of that review period, down 5 percent from 271 a year earlier. Price went up. The rig count did not throw a party.

World Oil’s mid-year review has the geographic Permian at about 6.7 million barrels a day at the end of 2025 and still nearly half of U.S. crude. The other thing that note records is inventory shopping, not a rig boom: Devon closed Coterra in May. Matador agreed in July to buy Paloma Permian. The basin is buying locations. It is not sprinting the count.

Texas Railroad Commission well headers compiled by Buckhead Energy as of today: 3,203 Texas permits over the trailing 24 months, 2,000 drilled-but-uncompleted wells in inventory, 784 spuds in the last 90 days. Occidental sits at the top of that operator list. Midland County sits at the top of the permit list. That is a state ledger. It is not a forecast.

Associated gas is the other West Texas number. Reuters had U.S. Lower-48 dry gas at a record 111.5 billion cubic feet a day in August. The Permian is a large part of that. Henry Hub at $2.90 does not pay like $91 crude. The oil price is Hormuz. The gas price is supply.

Tuesday’s names on the tape, from the Texas Energy Report close: Exxon $164.66, Chevron $211.04, ConocoPhillips $136.24, Occidental $60.95, EOG $148.28, Diamondback $203.16. That is one session. It is not a new drilling program.

$91 oil is a Strait print. The Permian is still a discipline print. The next number that would change that sentence is Friday’s Baker Hughes count, or the Sept. 9 STEO. Until one of those moves, do not write the basin as if it just discovered $90.

Sources
EIA / FRED: WTI Cushing spot $91.48 and Brent $96.02 for Sept. 1, 2026, released Sept. 2. Henry Hub spot $2.90.
Financial Times: WTI CL.1 session Sept. 2, $90.65 open, $92.29 high, $89.35 low.
Reuters via this desk, Sept. 1 settle: WTI $90.22, Brent $94.65.
East Daley Analytics, Aug. 25, 2026.
Mercer Capital, Value Focus E&P, Q2 2026, Permian.
World Oil, August 2026 mid-year forecast review.
Buckhead Energy, Texas Drilling Activity Report, Sept. 2, 2026.
Texas Energy Report, Sept. 1 closes.
Capitol and Cleats, Sept. 1 Hormuz file.