Baker Hughes reported a decline in the total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States this week. The total rig count fell by 6 to 613, compared to 755 rigs this same time last year. The number of oil rigs fell by 5 this week, after gaining 5 in the week prior. Oil rigs now stand at 506, down by 85 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 1 this week to 105, a loss of 56 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 2.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production remained unchanged for the seventh week in a row, averaging 13.1 million barrels per day (bpd) for the week ending April 12. This is down 200,000 bpd from the all-time high of 13.3 million bpd. Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells, ended a four-week losing streak, gaining in the week ending April 19. Completions rose by 8 to 260 for the week, which is 30 fewer crews than this time last year. The Permian saw a 1-rig decrease after gaining 2 in the week prior. The count in the Eagle Ford stayed the same this week after seeing no change in the week prior.
At 12:25 p.m. ET, before data release, the WTI benchmark was trading up $0.49 per barrel at $84.06. This is about $0.90 above last week’s price at this time. The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.54 per barrel at $89.55, a roughly $2 per barrel increase from a week ago.
