The the number of active oil and gas rigs fell again in the United States this week according to Baker Hughes, after a string of losses in the weeks prior, keeping the overall rig count well below year-ago levels for a seventh week in a row.
The total number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the United States fell by 4 according to the report, with the number of active oil rigs falling 5 to reach 797 and the number of gas rigs increasing by 1 to reach 186.
The combined oil and gas rig count is 983, with oil seeing a 62-rig decrease year on year and gas rigs down 12 since this time last year. The combined oil and gas rig count is down 76 year on year.
Year-to-date, the oil rig count has fallen from 877 active rigs on January 4 to 797, while gas rigs have fallen from 198 to 186 during that same time. Oil rigs are now at their lowest since March 2018, according to Baker Hughes.
At 12:33pm EST, moments before data release, WTI was trading up slightly by $0.04 (+0.07%) at $57.95, after taking a beating the day before. WTI is trading down more than $4 per barrel week on week as the China-US trade war dampens the mood in the market on top of increasing crude oil inventories in the United States.
The Brent benchmark was trading up as well, by $0.30 (+0.45%) at $66.80-also more than a $4 per barrel drop week on week.
US oil production ticked up slightly for week ending May 17, coming in at 12.2 million bpd-just 100,000 bpd off the April 26 high of 12.3 million bpd.
Canada's rig count increased by 15. Canada's oil rigs are now up 3 year on year, with gas rigs down 6 year on year.
WTI was trading up 0.41% on the day at 1:09pm EST, with Brent up 0.66%.
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