Baker Hughes reported a 13-rig decrease to the number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States on Friday. Oil and gas rigs fell to 1,044, according to the report, with the number of active oil rigs falling by 9 ad the number of gas rigs falling by 4.
The oil and gas rig count is now 104 up from this time last year.
At 09:58 a.m. EDT on Friday, WTI Crude was up 1.74 percent at $69.01, while Brent Crude traded up 1.73 percent at $76.39, on signs that Iran's oil exports have started to drop off, although overall market sentiment was cautious as the U.S.-China trade dispute drags on. Both benchmarks were up significantly from this time last week.
Earlier on Friday, an International Business Times/Newsweek poll suggested oil prices would rise on anticipated supply disruptions from Iran, although respondents felt that the slowing oil demand growth, combined with a weaker dollar, would curtail price increases.
Canada's oil and gas rigs for the week rose by 17, bringing its total oil and gas rig count to 229, which is 12 more than this time last year, with a 12-rig gain for oil and a 5-rig gain for gas for the week. The price of Western Canada Select (WCS) was trading down on Friday, trading at $36.58 as of 11:50 am, just a hair higher than this time last week.
EIA estimates for US production were up 100,000 barrels per day for the week ending August 17, averaging 11 million bpd. again, after dipping down to 10.8 million bpd as of August 03.
By 1:18pm EDT, WTI and Brent were trading up. WTI was trading up 1.72% (+$1.17) at $69.00. Brent crude was trading up 1.69% (+$1.27) at $76.36 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