The number of oil and gas rigs in the United States rose again this week, this time by 8, according to Baker Hughes, ending a short-lived downward trend in weeks prior. The number of oil rigs stayed flat this week, while the number of gas rigs gained eight.
The WTI and Brent benchmarks fell earlier in the week on a surprise increase in crude oil inventory reported by API and EIA, and probably the biggest catalyst this week, IEA's downward revision for crude oil demand growth. Still, crude oil managed to rally on Friday before the data release.
The total oil and gas rig count in the United States now stands at 915 rigs, up 327 rigs from the year prior, with the number of oil rigs standing at 738 versus 471 a year ago. The number of gas rigs in the US now stands at 177, up from 116 a year ago.
Canada, too, saw an increase to oil and gas rigs of 5, with oil rigs climbing by 1 and gas rigs climbing by 4.
By state, Texas was the big winner, adding 7 rigs. Louisiana was the runner up, adding 4 rigs.
WTI was trading up on Friday 1.93 percent at $56.42 at 11:26am EST. Brent crude was trading up 1.45 percent at $62.25 at that time-both benchmarks up slightly from last week. The benchmarks climbed even higher closer to data release.
Along with an increase to the number of active oil rigs, US crude oil production was up for the week ending November 10 at 9.645 million barrels per day-another new high for 2017 after reaching a high the week prior.
At 7 minutes after the hour, both benchmarks had slipped on the data release, with WTI trading at $56.62, with Brent crude trading at $62.67.
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