The number of total active drilling rigs in the United States rose by 2 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published on Wednesday instead of Friday this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
The total rig count increased to 784 this week-215 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2021, and 291 rigs lower than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Oil rigs in the United States rose by 4 this week, to 627. Gas rigs declined by 2 to 155. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 2.
The rig count in the Permian Basin rose by 3 this week to 352. Rigs in the Eagle Ford stayed the same at 71.
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 in the week ending November 23, also released two days early due to the holidays. The frac spread count is now 300, up 3 from the previous week and 26 higher than this time last year.
Crude oil inventories shed 3.7 million barrels over the week to November 18, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on November 23nd.
This compared with a decline of 5.4 million barrels for the previous week and an estimated draw of 4.8 million barrels reported by the American petroleum Institute for the week to November 18.
Oil prices were trading down on Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, with Brent crude trading at $84.34 (-1.25%) at 9:22 a.m. EST, and WTI trading at $77.33 (-0.78%) on the day.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More