The number of total active drilling rigs in the United States rose by 13 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published on Friday.
The total rig count rose to 753 this week—283 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2021.
Oil rigs in the United States rose by 10 this week to 594. Gas rigs rose by 3 to 157. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 2.
The rig count in the Permian Basin rose by 4 this week at 349. Rigs in the Eagle Ford rose by 3, to 72. Oil and gas rigs in the Permian are 113 above where they were this time last year.
Primary Vision's Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells—a more frugal use of finances than drilling new wells—rose again last week. The frac spread count is now 284 for week ending June 17, compared to 235 a year ago.
It is unclear how much crude oil U.S. oil companies produced in the week ending June 17 due to technical difficulties at the EIA. However, in the week prior, U.S. crude oil production rose to 12 million bpd for the week ending June 10—the highest level since April 2020 when the pandemic took hold.
At 10:37 a.m. ET, oil prices were trending up on the day. WTI was trading at $107.50—up $3.21 per barrel (+3.08%) on the day, and down roughly $4 per barrel on the week. The Brent benchmark traded at $113.00 per barrel, up $2.90 (+2.64%) on the day, and down roughly $1 on the week.
At 1:11 pm ET, WTI was trading at $106.90, while Brent was trading at $112.50 per barrel—both down up the day.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
ADVERTISEMENT
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
- New EV Battery Boasts 1,000km Range
- 4 Nations That Could Help Solve The Global Fuel Crisis
- Europe Faces “Red Alert” For Gas Supply As Russia Reduces Flows
The truth of the matter is that shale oil is a spent force. Neither high WTI crude prices nor rising oil rig count are enabling it to increase production. The real reason for this stagnation isn’t capital discipline as often mentioned but the fact that the sweet and more lucrative spots in the shale plays have already been exhausted forcing drillers to move to poor and very expensive to produces ones thus leading to rising production costs and declining production.
It is high time for the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) in cahoots with the hapless IEA and Rystad Energy to come clean and tell the world that the good old days of shale are history.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London