The number of total active drilling rigs in the United States fell 3 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published on Friday.
The total rig count slipped to 768 this week-224 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2021.
Oil rigs in the United States fell 2 this week, to 610. Gas rigs fell 1 to 156. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 2.
The rig count in the Permian Basin held steady again this week at 346. Rigs in the Eagle Ford fell 1 to 70. Granite Wash and Williston also saw a decrease of a single rig, while Cana Woodford saw a 2-rig gain. Arkoma Woodford saw a single rig gain.
Primary Vision's Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells-a more frugal use of finances than drilling new wells-rose for the seventh week in a row, to 298 for the week ending October 21, from 295 in the previous week. This compares to 288 a month ago and 265 a year ago.
Crude oil production in the United States was unchanged in the week to October 21, at 12 million bpd, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates. U.S. production levels are up just 300,000 bpd so far this year and up 700,000 bpd versus a year ago.
At 11:30 a.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading down $1.51 per barrel (-1.70%) on the day at $87.57 per barrel-up nearly $3 per barrel since this time last week.
The Brent benchmark was trading down $1.62 at $98.34 per barrel (-1.67%) on the day, but up roughly $6.50 per barrel compared to last Friday.
WTI was trading at $87.68 minutes after the data release.
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