US Oil, Gas Drillers Add 1 More Rig As Production Plummets

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count rose by 1 to 621 this week, compared to 771 rigs this same time last year.

The number of oil rigs rose by 2 this week after falling 2 last week, settling at 499--down by 110 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 1 this week to 119, a loss of 41 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed at 3.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production plummeted 1 million bpd to average just 12.3 million bpd in the week ending January 19—falling to the lowest point since June of last year thanks to the cold snap that took production offline throughout the nation.

Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells that are unfinished, rose for the first time in six weeks in the week ending January 19. Completion rpse by 1 to 235 for January 19. This follows a string of weekly decreases in completion activity that dipped by 44 over the previous five weeks.

The Permian saw 3 rigs added, while the Eagle Ford was down 1 rg. Rigs again stayed the same in the Williston basin.

Oil prices were trading down on Friday morning. At 11:46 p.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading down $0.73 (-0.94%) on the day at $76.63, despite depressed production in the United States. While down on the day, that price level is a $3.30 increase from last week at this time.  

The Brent benchmark was trading down $0.55 (-0.67%) at $81.88, an increase of $3.30 per barrel from a week ago.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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