Baker Hughes reported a loss of two rigs in the United States this week, bringing the total number of active oil and gas rigs to 1,053 according to the report, with the number of active oil rigs decreasing by one to reach 866 and the number of gas rigs holding steady for the second week in a row at 186. The miscellaneous rig count fell by one rig.
The oil and gas rig count is now 118 up from this time last year.
At 12:03pm. EDT on Friday, WTI Crude was trading down 0.13 percent at $70.23—but over $1 per barrel up from this time last week, while Brent Crude was trading down 0.35 percent at $77.95—a few pennies down from this time last week.
The lower prices are partially attributed to President Donald Trump’s Twitter Chastisement on Thursday that berated OPEC for manipulating prices upwards as Brent neared the scary $80 per barrel mark. Limited the price decline is reports that Japan and South Korea both have ceased all crude oil trading with Iran, and India has significantly reduced its purchases of Iranian oil this month and next. Speculation that Libya may be forced to close its Wafaa oilfield completely if a current blockade of an airport there continues.
Canada’s oil and gas rigs for the week lost 29 rigs this week after adding 22 rigs last week, bringing its total oil and gas rig count to 197, which is 23 fewer than this time last year, with an 13-rig decrease for oil and a 16-rig decrease for gas for the week.
On the production side, the EIA’s estimates for US production for the week ending September 14 were for an average of 11.0 million bpd.
By 1:09pm EDT, WTI was trading up 1.02% (+$0.72) at $71.04. Brent crude was trading up 0.08% (+$0.06) at $78.28 per barrel.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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