U.S. Oil Rig Count Jumps Amid Selloff In Crude

The number of total active drilling rigs in the United States rose by 7 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count rose to 769 this week-226 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2021.

Oil rigs in the United States rose by 8 this week, to 610. Gas rigs slipped by 1, to 157. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 2.

The rig count in the Permian Basin rose by 1 to 346 this week. Rigs in the Eagle Ford slipped by 1 to 71.Oil and gas rigs in the Permian are 79 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 by 1 to 291 for the week ending October 7, compared to 284 a month ago and 263 a year ago.

Crude oil production in the United States had a disappointing week, particularly after a week of barb-trading between Saudi Arabia and the United States over oil production levels. U.S. crude production fell to 11.9 million bpd for the week ending October 7, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates. U.S. production levels are up just 200,000 bpd so far this year and up 600,000 bpd versus a year ago.

At 11:08 a.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading down $2.95 per barrel (-3.31%) on the day at $86.16 per barrel-down more than $6 per barrel since this time last week, erasing all the gains seen from last week's OPEC+ production quota cut of 2 million bpd.

The Brent benchmark was trading down at $92.00 per barrel, down $2.57 (-2.72%) on the day, and down $6 per barrel compared to this time last Friday. 

WTI was trading at $86.22 minutes after the data release.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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