The the number of active oil and gas rigs fell again in the United States this week according to Baker Hughes, after a string of losses in the weeks prior, keeping the overall rig count well below year-ago levels for a seventh week in a row.
The total number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the United States fell by 4 according to the report, with the number of active oil rigs falling 5 to reach 797 and the number of gas rigs increasing by 1 to reach 186.
The combined oil and gas rig count is 983, with oil seeing a 62-rig decrease year on year and gas rigs down 12 since this time last year. The combined oil and gas rig count is down 76 year on year.
Year-to-date, the oil rig count has fallen from 877 active rigs on January 4 to 797, while gas rigs have fallen from 198 to 186 during that same time. Oil rigs are now at their lowest since March 2018, according to Baker Hughes.
At 12:33pm EST, moments before data release, WTI was trading up slightly by $0.04 (+0.07%) at $57.95, after taking a beating the day before. WTI is trading down more than $4 per barrel week on week as the China-US trade war dampens the mood in the market on top of increasing crude oil inventories in the United States.
The Brent benchmark was trading up as well, by $0.30 (+0.45%) at $66.80—also more than a $4 per barrel drop week on week.
US oil production ticked up slightly for week ending May 17, coming in at 12.2 million bpd—just 100,000 bpd off the April 26 high of 12.3 million bpd.
Canada’s rig count increased by 15. Canada’s oil rigs are now up 3 year on year, with gas rigs down 6 year on year.
WTI was trading up 0.41% on the day at 1:09pm EST, with Brent up 0.66%.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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