U.S. Oil, Gas Drillers Stuck In A Rut

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States saw no change this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday. 

The total rig count stayed the same at 600 this week, compared to 696 rigs this same time last year.

The number of oil rigs fell by one this week, after staying the same in the week prior. Oil rigs stand at 496--down by 59 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs rose by 1 this week to 100, a loss of 37 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 4.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production stayed the same for the eleventh week in a row at an average of 13.1 million bpd for the week ending May 24-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 wells that are unfinished, fell by 6 in the week ending May 24, to 257. 

Drilling activity in the Permian slipped by 2 rigs after seeing no change in the week prior. The count in the Eagle Ford rose by 1 this week after falling by 1 in the week prior. 

Oil prices were trading down on Friday despite OPEC rumors that the group could extend its production cuts to the end of the year, and possibly could even deepn cuts. At 12:10 p.m. ET, moments before data release, the WTI benchmark was trading down $0.95 (-1.22%) on the day at $76.96. This is roughly $0.65 per barrel shy of this same time last week. 

The Brent benchmark was trading down $0.34 (-0.43%) at $81.51, roughly $0.50 per barrel below week-ago levels.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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