Baker Hughes reported on Friday that the number of oil and gas rigs in the US fell again this week by 64, falling to 465, with the total oil and gas rigs clocking in at 526 fewer than this time last year as U.S. drillers make hasty and significant changes to their operations.
Over the last six weeks, oil and gas rigs combined have shed a total of 327 rigs.
The number of oil rigs decreased for the week by 60 rigs, according to Baker Hughes data, bringing the total to 378-a 427-rig loss year over year. It is the fewest number of active oil rigs since July 2016.
The total number of active gas rigs in the United States fell by 4 according to the report, to 85. This compares to 186 a year ago.
The number of active rigs taken offline over the last six weeks is a clear indication that the U.S. oil industry is being pressured to make significant and painful changes in response to storage that is near capacity and the low price of oil.
The EIA's estimate for the week is that oil production in the United States fell to 12.2 million barrels of oil per day on average for week ending April 24, which is 900,O00 bpd off the all-time high and 100,000 bpd lower than the week prior. It is the lowest production level since May last year.
At 1:04pm, WTI was trading at $17.03 , while the Brent benchmark was trading at $21.71 (+1.78%).
Canada's overall rig count decreased by 4 rigs as well this week, to a total of just 26 rigs. Oil and gas rigs in Canada are now down 37 year on year.
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