The number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States fell this week by 6 rigs. Combined, the total oil and gas rig count in the US now stands at 940 rigs, up 451 rigs from the year prior, with the number of oil rigs in the United States decreasing by 4 and the number of gas rigs decreasing by 2.
Oil rigs in the United States now number 759—353 rigs above this time last year.
Canada lost 6 oil rigs again this week, with the number of gas rigs increasing by 9—bringing Canada’s total to 217 oil and gas rigs—71 above the year ago levels.
Prices rose on Friday as Hurricane Harvey draws nearer to the Gulf Coast, with futures hitting a four-month high. At 7:51am EDT Friday, WTI was trading up 0.74 percent at US$47.78 and Brent was trading up 0.81 percent at US$52.46.
The rise in price was also thanks to the Energy Information Administration’s Wednesday report that the United States’ crude oil inventory had fallen by 3.3 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell as well, by 1.2 million barrels, according to the EIA.
Barrel prices for WTI were trading about 70 cents over last week’s levels, as prices just can’t seem to sustain any significant increase despite the weekly inventory draws reported by the EIA, reports of Saudi Arabia’s significantly restricted crude oil exports, or OPEC promises that compliance to the production cuts will improve or that further cuts are still on the table.
The rise in the number of active rigs in the United States continues to slow, with the 5-week average gain for US oil rig count staying in negative territory for the second week in a row. Related: Elon Musk: Killer Robots Bigger Threat Than Nuclear North Korea
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Despite the falling average weekly gain in active US oil rigs, US crude oil production continues to increase, with average production averaging 9.528 million barrels per day for the week ending August 18, up from 9.502 million bpd the week prior.
At 9 minutes after the hour, WTI was trading at $47.66 with Brent crude trading at $52.14.
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By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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