The the number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States fell again this week according to Baker Hughes, as the overall rig count reaches the lowest point since February 2018.
The total number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the United States fell by 6 according to the report, with the number of active oil rigs falling by 1 to reach 788 and the number of gas rigs decreasing by 5 to reach 181.
The combined oil and gas rig count is 969, with oil seeing a 75-rig decrease year on year and gas rigs down 13 since this time last year. The combined oil and gas rig count is down 90 year on year.
Year-to-date, the oil rig count has fallen from 877 active rigs on January 4 to 788, while gas rigs have fallen from 198 to 181 during that same time.
Despite the 75 oil rig decline year on year, US production continues to climb, with an almost 2 million barrel per day increase for the year.
At 11:33am EST today WTI was up $0.55 (+1.05%) at $52.83. Although up on the day, WTI is trading down slightly week on week. While fears of a global supply overage linger in the wake of what many feel is faltering demand due to geopolitical issues between China and the United States and the United States and Mexico, the recent attack on two tankers off the coast of Oman has managed to push up prices for the day.
The Brent benchmark was trading up on the day as well, by $0.89 (+1.45%) at $62.20-a slight increase from last week.
Robust US oil production is also keeping the prices in check, although falling back on June 07 to 12.3 million bpd just a hair under the all-time high of last week at 12.4 million bpd.
Canada's overall rig count increased by 4. Canada's oil rigs are still down by 18 year on year, with gas rigs down 14 year on year.
WTI was trading up 0.92% on the day at 1:07pm EST, with Brent up 1.32%.
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