The Crude Life Studios at 601 Main Street is opening its walls and its doors to the creative heart of the Mother Road. The venue will feature rotating exhibitions of Route 66-inspired art, books by regional authors, and interactive displays designed to celebrate the highway’s living culture while supporting the […]

For about a century, a small service station sat a few miles east of town, closed and quiet, while the road it once served turned into a legend. Now it has been moved, restored, and set down in Marshfield, just feet from the old alignment of Route 66. The Niangua […]

  In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered one of the most consequential antitrust rulings in American history. Standard Oil, the sprawling empire built by John D. Rockefeller, was ordered dissolved. What had been a near-total domination of the U.S. oil industry—controlling refining, pipelines, and marketing—was broken into 34 independent […]

In the heart of the Delaware Basin, another example of Permian innovation and execution just hit the books. Lasso Drilling LLC announced the successful completion of a 27,362-foot measured-depth U-Turn well in Reeves County, Texas, working alongside PetroPlex Energy and the broader team that made it happen. The Midland-based drilling […]

In Galena, Kansas, the Hometown of Route 66, several students from McPherson College were participating in their “Waffle House Rally”. The event is a small event some of the students participate in from the college and on this particular day, they were on Route 66 in Galena. At McPherson College […]

We recently received a promotional graphic circulating online — and an accompanying email from a reader asking the same question many people are wondering: Is this Landman Season 3 extras casting call in Fort Worth legitimate, or is it a scam? The flyer features Billy Bob Thornton’s image from the […]

Blake and Craig didn’t set out to do Route 66. They set out to buy cheap old cars somewhere on the East Coast or Midwest — Chicago was on the table — and drive them home to California. Somewhere in the planning, Craig suggested they just follow Route 66 instead, […]

  On a stretch of historic Route 66 in Galena, Kansas—right across the street from Frequency 66 Studios and in front of Gearhead Curious—three gleaming muscle cars pulled in and immediately turned heads. A Pontiac GTO, an Oldsmobile 442, and a sharp business coupe sat side by side under the […]

While U.S. land drilling remains a story of hundreds of active rotary rigs spread across Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and other states, deepwater drilling operates on an entirely different scale. A handful of specialized floating vessels working in thousands of feet of water continue to deliver a large share of […]

The Mother Road has gotten a multimedia studio dedicated to Route 66 news, events, colorful personalities, travelers, businesses and Americana archives. Frequency 66 is a media engagement studio and experience center at 601 Main Street in Galena, Kansas — right on Route 66, kitty-corner from Gearhead Curious and the Kansas Visitor Center. […]

Kansas Strong (Kansas Oil and Natural Gas Producers) will hold a free Oilfield Worker Appreciation Celebration on Friday, October 9, 2026, in Pratt, continuing a series of thank-you events the organization has run across the state through 2026. The celebration is open to all oilfield workers — both field and […]

The latest snapshot of U.S. oil and gas drilling activity shows a modest but meaningful uptick, with 595 active rigs nationwide for the week ended September 18. That’s a gain of four rigs from the prior week and 53 more than the same period a year earlier, according to the […]

Energy advisor, author and filmmaker Mark A. Stansberry has been added to the lineup for the Route 66 Roundtable and Social Networking Event, set for Thursday, October 8, 2026, at Reagan Smith on Route 66 in Oklahoma City. Stansberry will appear as a standalone presenter rather than as part of one of […]

At Cars at the Route, Italian photographer Roberto Rossi paused long enough to share the story behind a striking collection of images—photographs that aim to capture more than just the scenery of America’s legendary highway. Rossi, who hails from Italy and serves as president of the Route 66 Association in […]

On a stretch of historic Route 66 in Galena, Kansas, outside Gearhead’s Curios and across from the newly opened Frequency 66 studios, a low-riding classic stopped traffic—and sparked a friendly roadside conversation that captured the spirit of the Mother Road. The car in question was a 1954 Plymouth, owned by […]

In Galena, Kansas—smack in the middle of a famously short 13.2-mile stretch of the Mother Road—a group of motorcycle riders paused long enough for a spontaneous conversation that captured the spirit of Route 66 itself: international, resilient, and still capable of bringing people together. One of the riders, a paying […]

  On a sunny stretch of the legendary road in the Hometown of Route 66, a gleaming classic car drew crowds of admirers and camera phones. The standout was a striking 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible—one of the last true American convertibles from Cadillac’s golden era—and it happened to be for […]

Jay Leno got his driveway back on September 16. That’s the short version of what happened when Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1392 — “Leno’s Law” — at Leno’s Burbank garage, exempting classic collector vehicles from model years 1976 to 1985 from California’s smog checks. The exemption phases in […]

The couple hadn’t planned on stopping long. But the car did the talking before they did — a 1957 Pontiac Star Chief, polished enough to pull eyes off the highway and onto the chrome. “Is this your vehicle?” I asked. “Yes,” the driver said. “What kind is it?” “A ‘57 […]

On a quiet Saturday morning in the Hometown of Route 66, a group of three paused with their classic rides and cups of coffee while waiting for the rest of the Jefferson Highway / Route 66 caravan to catch up. Among them sat a striking 1953 Ford Custom Line, its […]

Sidewalks don’t usually fill up on a weekday for a caravan of unfinished, rusted-out cars. But that’s what happened in Galena, Kansas, when the 2026 Official Rat Rod Tour came through town behind a guided police escort — residents had folding chairs set up along the sidewalk, the kind of […]

Robbie McDonough, Vice President of Land and Government Relations at Crestwood Equity Partners, joined The Crude Life to discuss a community celebration and major announcement in Mandaree, North Dakota, on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Crestwood hosted a traditional community feed under a big tent to kick off a capital campaign for a […]

On August 6, 2026, ConocoPhillips announced a clean, planned leadership succession. Andy O’Brien, the company’s chief financial officer and executive vice president of Strategy and Commercial, will become president and CEO effective September 1. He will also join the board. Ryan Lance, after 14 years as CEO and more than […]

Japan’s decision this week to forgo any additional releases from its national crude reserves in September and October is a quiet but revealing signal about the current state of the global oil market. Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa made clear that Tokyo expects September crude procurement to drop […]

Every American taxpayer should pay attention to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s precarious state because it is a publicly funded national insurance policy that is rapidly losing its ability to pay out when needed—and the bill for fixing or replacing it will land on all of us. The SPR is not […]

MFA Oil Company raised $100,000 for Feeding Missouri in June, helping support hunger-relief efforts for families across the state. Feeding Missouri is a coalition of Missouri’s six regional Feeding America food banks. Through a statewide network of more than 1,200 community and faith-based organizations, it delivers hunger relief to every […]

Montana Renewables, LLC (MRL) joined the Minnesota SAF Hub in celebration of new supply to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP). MRL will supply up to 30 million gallons of neat SAF annually through its existing Shell offtake agreement. MRL’s partnership with the Minnesota SAF Hub began in 2024, when the […]

I support fast-tracked permitting. I’ve spent enough time in this industry to know what a multi-year federal review does to a project’s economics, to a landowner’s patience, and to a small operator’s ability to compete with companies that can afford to wait. On paper, FAST-41 — the federal permitting reform […]

In the oil patch, numbers tell stories. And the latest numbers from 2025 tell a clear one: the United States remains the undisputed heavyweight champion of crude oil production. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), American producers pumped 13.58 million barrels per day last year — […]

Terry and Julie Morris drove in from Crane, Missouri, towing a piece of 1970s history behind them, and by the time I clipped a lapel mic on for the first time — trying new things, right, that’s what Route 66 does to you — they were already deep into the […]

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) updated its outlook on or around July 7, forecasting Brent crude averaging around $74/bbl in Q3 2026 (significantly lower than prior estimates). U.S. crude production is expected to average about 13.6–13.8 million bpd in 2026, with records or near-records continuing in key areas like […]

In an era of explosive data center demand, record U.S. shale output, and the long shadow of energy transition rhetoric, one constant refuses to yield the spotlight: the Strait of Hormuz. As of today, geopolitical tensions centered on this narrow chokepoint continue to exert outsized influence on global oil prices, […]