Drilling activity in the United States continues to pick up, according to Baker Hughes, with a 6-rig rise to the number of active drilling rigs this week, according to Baker Hughes.
The total rig count is now at 556-a figure that is 244 up from this time last year. Nevertheless, active rigs are still hundreds less than the 790 active rigs that were drilling in the pre-covid world.
The U.S. oil rig count rose this week to 454-a 4-rig increase since last week, and a 218 rig increase since this time last year.
The number of gas rigs increased by 2 to 102, while miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at zero.
The EIA's estimate for oil production in the United States for the week ending November 5 held fast at 11.5 million bpd.
Oil production is still well below the 13.1 million bpd record set last year before the pandemic took hold in the United States.
Canada's overall rig count increased by 8. Active oil and gas rigs in Canada are now at 168, up 79 on the year.
The rig count in the Permian Basin increased by 1 this week, with 118 rigs added since last year. The number of rigs in the nation's second most prolific basin, the Eagle Ford, also added 1 rig this week. The Permian's total rig count is now 272, with 41 total in the Eagle Ford.
Primary Vision's Frac Spread Count, which tracks the number of completion crews finishing off previously drilled wells, shows that completion crews stayed the same this week at 266 for week ending November 5. The frac count is up by more than 130 since the start of the year.
At 12:00 p.m. EDT, oil prices were trending down on the day. WTI was trading at $80.92-down 0.82% on the day and up just slightly on the week. The Brent benchmark was trading at $82.28, down 0.71% on the day.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More