The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell again this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Thursday, falling by 3. U.S. drillers saw a total loss of rigs this year of 1.
The total rig count fell by 3 to 621 this week, compared to 755 rigs this same time last year.
The number of oil rigs fell by 3 this week after falling by 5 in the week prior. Oil rigs now stand at 506--down by 86 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs stayed the same this week at 112, a loss of 48 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 3.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production stayed the same again this week at an average of 13.1 million bpd in the week ending March 22, 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 in the week ending March 22. Completions fell by 4 to 265 for the week.
The Permian saw a 1-rig increase after falling in the week prior. The count in the Eagle Ford stayed the same again this week after seeing no change the week prior.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More
Comments
This begs the question of why employ more oil rigs if a fall in their numbers doesn't result in a fall of US production.
In fact, EIA's excessively hyped US production figures are one of the tools the US uses to manipulate the global oil market and undermine OPEC+'s production policies with the ain of depressing oil prices.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Global Energy Expert