Oil, Gas Drilling Still Stalling As Prices Climb

The total number of active drilling rigs in the United States fell by 5 again this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published Friday.

The total rig count fell to 654 this week. So far this year, Baker Hughes has estimated a loss of 125 active drilling rigs. This week’s count is 421 fewer rigs than the rig count at the beginning of 2019 prior to the pandemic.

The number of oil rigs stayed the same this week at 525, down by 96 so far in 2023. The number of gas rigs fell by 5 to 123, a loss of 33 active gas rigs from the start of the year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same.

The rig count in the Permian Basin slipped by 2 rigs—19 rigs below this same time last year. The rig count in the Eagle Ford fell by 1, and is now 19 fewer than this time last year.

Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells (which is cheaper than drilling new wells), fell again this week. The frac spread count slipped to 257 in the week ending August 4, down from 268 in the week prior. The frac spread count is 1 fewer than where it started the year.

Crude oil production levels in the United States rose to 12.6 million bpd in the week ending August 4, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates—the highest production levels according to weekly data since 2019. U.S. production levels are now up 400,000 bpd versus a year ago.

At 12:51 p.m. ET on Friday, the WTI benchmark was trading up $0.90 (+1.09%) on the day at $83.72—up roughly $1.70 per barrel from this time last week. The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.87 (+1.01%) at $87.27 per barrel on the day—up about $1.40 per barrel from a week ago.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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