The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday.
The total rig count fell by 2 to 619 this week, compared to 759 rigs this same time last year.
The number of oil rigs stayed the same this week after rising by 2 last week, staying at 499--down by 100 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2 this week to 117, a loss of 41 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed at 3.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production rose by 700,000 bpd to average 13.0 million bpd in the week ending January 26. The large production increase, however, only came after a 1 million bpd fall in the week prior as a cold snap took production offline. Production rates in the U.S. are still down by 200,000 bpd since the start of the year.
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Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells that are unfinished, rose in the week ending January 26. Completions rose by 7 to 242 for the week.
The Permian saw 1 rig added after rising by 3 the week before. The count in the Eagle Ford slid by 2 rigs after falling by 1 rig in the week prior.
Oil prices were trading down on Friday morning. At 12:49 p.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading down $1.49 (-2.02%) on the day at $72.33, despite depressed production in the United States—a more than $4 decline week over week as rumors spread that Hamas and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire proposal.
The Brent benchmark was trading down $1.39 (-1.77%) at $77.31, a decrease of well over $4 per barrel from a week ago.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com