Baker Hughes reported a 4-rig increase to the number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States on Friday. Oil and gas rigs rose to 1,048 according to the report, with the number of active oil rigs increasing by 2 and the number of gas rigs increasing by 2.
The oil and gas rig count is now 105 up from this time last year.
At 11:15 a.m. EDT on Friday, WTI Crude was down 0.28 percent at $70.05-about $1.00 per barrel from this time last week, while Brent Crude traded down 0.05 percent at $77.98, as a Reuter's survey calculated that OPEC's August oil production hit a 2018 high, even though Iran's oil exports started to slip and Venezuela languishes in economic purgatory, unable to get more oil out of the ground and out of the country as migrants flee the socialist country in hoards.
OPEC's production, the survey found, averaged 32.79 million barrels per day in August-a 220,000 bpd increase over July production volumes.
Still, oil prices are up for the month, supported
Canada's oil and gas rigs for the week fell by 1, bringing its total oil and gas rig count to 228, which is 27 more than this time last year, with a 2-rig decrease for oil and a 1-rig gain for gas for the week. The price of Western Canada Select (WCS) was trading up on Friday, trading up 2.00% at $37.75 as of 11:27 am, more than $1 higher than this time last year.
The EIA estimates for US production were unchanged for the week ending August 24, averaging 11 million bpd again.
By 1:08pm EDT, WTI and Brent were trading down, with WTI trading down 0.40% (-$0.25) at $69.97. Brent crude was trading down 0.26% (-$0.20) at $77.82 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