Baker Hughes reported on Friday that the number of oil rigs in the United States fell by 1 to 179.
The total number of active oil and gas rigs increased for the week by 1, with oil rigs falling by 1 and gas rigs increasing by 2.
Total oil and gas rigs in the United States are now down by 613 compared to this time last year.
The EIA's estimate for oil production in the United States rose for the week ending September 11-the last week for which there is data, to 10.9 million barrels of oil per day, up from 10.0 million bpd in the week prior and 9.7 million bpd the week before that. While production has recovered in the last couple of weeks, U.S. oil production is still down 2.2 million bpd from its all-time high reached earlier this year.
Canada's overall rig count rose by12 this week. Oil and gas rigs in Canada are now at 64 active rigs, down 55 year on year.
The Frac Spread Count in North America, which is provided by Primary Vision fell last week, from 87 back to 85.
The relationship between the price of WTI and rig count typically displays a lag between the two, with falling prices reacting more violently than the rig dropoff.
[click here for an interactive chart]
The chart also shows that whenever prices rebound, a rig rebound does not necessarily follow.
Looking at a shorter timeframe of the last three months, the sharp dropoff in the price of WTI has not yet had time to elicit a reaction in the rig count.
WTI was trading up on Friday, while Brent was trading down-with both up on the week, after crude stock draws and optimistic OPEC chatter bolstered prices.
At 12:06 pm EDT, WTI was trading up 0.54% at $41.19-nearly $4 up on the week. Brent was trading down 0.12% on the day, at $43.25-also up significantly on the week.
At 1:13 pm, WTI was trading at $41.22 per barrel, with Brent changing hands at $43.25 per barrel.
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