The US oil and gas rig count fell by 5 this week, according to Baker Hughes, after losing rigs last week as well.
The total number of active oil rigs in the United States fell by 4 according to the report, reaching 784. The number of active gas rigs decreased by 2 to reach 172. Miscellaneous rigs gained 1.
The combined oil and gas rig count is now 958 for the week, with oil seeing a 79-rig decrease year on year and gas rigs down 17 since this time last year. The combined oil and gas rig count is down 96 year on year.
Year-to-date, the oil rig count has fallen from 858 active rigs since the beginning of the year to 784, while gas rigs have fallen from 187 to 172 during that same time.
Oil prices had an exciting week, with prices rising mid-week on crude oil production outages in the US Gulf of Mexico due to the threat of a tropical storm, as well as increased tensions in the Persian Gulf after a British tanker was harassed by Iranian Guard boats near the Strait of Hormuz.
At 11:30pm EST today WTI was up $0.14 (+.23%) at $60.34-up more than $3 per barrel week on week. The Brent benchmark was trading up as well on the day, by $0.29 (+0.44%) at $66.81-up more than $2 per barrel from last week.
US production rose again for week ending July 05 to 12.3 million bpd, just 100,000 bpd off from the all-time high of 12.4 million bpd.
Canada's overall rig count saw a decrease as well, by 3 this week after decreasing by 4 last week. Canada's oil rigs are down by 54 year on year, with gas rigs down 26 year on year.
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