This week's Baker Hughes report shows the U.S. domestic oil rig count up eight sites this week, bringing the total to 617 active oil rigs - the highest since the end of September 2015.
Both West Texas Intermediate and Brent barrels traded down roughly 1.6 percent on Friday following the release of the report, which hinted at rising U.S. shale production. All week, oil experts and officials from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have been issuing warnings of impending market volatility due to high American shale oil output.
Saudi Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih told reporters at a conference in Houston on Tuesday that OPEC would not be giving a "free ride" to U.S. shale producers-shale producers that have taken the liberty of bringing over a hundred new rigs online in the market upturn fueled by the bloc's recent production cuts.
Since the bloc's announced cuts, the United States has brought online 140 oil rigs.
The gas rig count also saw a five-site jump this week, bringing the total to 151 active rigs, which is 94 rigs above the count a year ago.
State-wise, Alaska and New Mexico were the only two states that lost rigs last week, with a four-rig decline in total.
Louisiana made the largest gains, with five newly active rigs. Oklahoma and Colorado saw their count rise by three rigs each, while Ohio and Wyoming restarted production at two rigs per state.
By basin, the DJ-Niobrara in Wyoming and Colorado saw a four-rig gain. The Utica, Haynesville, and Permian basins each brought one or two new sites online.
Cana Woodford, Eagle Ford, and Granite Wash lost one or two rigs each.
In Canada, the number of oil rigs declined by 17, while the gas rig count dipped by 3.
By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com
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Zainab Calcuttawala is an American journalist based in Morocco. She completed her undergraduate coursework at the University of Texas at Austin (Hook’em) and reports on… More