Baker Hughes reported another dip in the number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States today. Oil and gas rigs decreased by 5 rigs, according to the report, with the number of oil rigs decreasing by 4, and the number of gas rigs decreasing by 1.
The oil and gas rig count now stands at 1,047-up 107 from this time last year.
Canada, for its part, gained 12 oil rigs for the week-after last week's gain of 21 oil and gas rigs. Despite weeks of significant gains, Canada's oil and gas rig count is still down by 17 year over year.
Oil benchmarks were up again on Friday afternoon as the market braced for the impact of multiple supply disruptions-or possible supply disruptions, rather-in Libya, Iran, Venezuela, and Canada. While oil supply disruptions in Libya, Canada, and Venezuela are already underway and expected to be either moderately long-term (Libya) in some cases, or infinite in others (Venezuela), Iran's supply disruptions, or export disruptions, have not yet materialized, although the general consensus is that approximately 1 million barrels per day will be taken out of the market as the US squeezes Related: Oil Investment In Canada To Drop Despite Rallying Prices
At 10:57am EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading up 1.05% (+$0.77) to $74.22, with Brent up 1.61% (+$1.25) to $78.86. Both benchmarks are up by multiple dollars per barrel week over week, as traders disregard Saudi Arabia's promise to increase production to meet demand.
Even US oil production is unable to keep oil prices in check, and for the third week in a row, US production stagnated at 10.9 million bpd-close to the 11 million bpd production that many had forecast for the year.
At 6 minutes after the hour, WTI was trading up 1.06% at $74.23, with Brent trading up 1.92% at $79.10.
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