Baker Hughes reported a 3-rig increase to the number of oil and gas rigs this week.
The total number of oil and gas rigs now stands at 978, which is an addition of 224 rigs year over year.
The number of oil rigs in the United States increased by a single rig this week, and now stands at 799, or 197 over this time last year. The number of gas rigs, which rose by 2 this week, now stands at 179, or 28 rigs above this week last year.
Canada lost 12 rigs this week; 9 for oil and 3 for gas.
At 12:36 pm EST, the price of a WTI barrel was trading up $0.78 (+1.24%) to $63.55. The Brent barrel trading up $0.74 (+1.12%) to $66.85—both benchmarks up from last week.
Oil prices dipped a couple of weeks ago after several weeks of EIA reporting higher crude oil inventories, and an updated IEA forecast that warned that a new glut may be coming on the back of robust US crude oil production. US crude oil production fell in the week ending February 16, to 10.270 million bpd—just a hair below last week’s figures—but still the second highest production figure for the US ever. Meanwhile, OPEC continues to sing the praises of its production cut efforts and is quick to point out at every turn that the market is indeed rebalancing.
By basin, Cana Woodford and the Permian each added two rigs, while DJ-Niobrara, Haynesville, Utica, and Williston each gained one rig. The Marcellus basin lost two rigs. The Permian basin now has 129 more active rigs than it did a year ago—representing more than 50% of the total annual increase in rigs.
At 1:07pm EST, WTI was trading at $63.63 (+$0.86) with Brent trading at $66.92 (+$0.81).
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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So far, the only thing the shale producers have been able to produce in abundance is debt, burning through CAPEX like crazy, as Chanos correctly pointed out. Oh yes, debt, and limited amounts of very inefficiently obtained oil, which will become even more expensive, now that the sweetspots are gone.
I don't know why still fantasizing about a "glut", but the reality of physical reserves is that there is a sustained draw an them for several months now. That means more physical barrels are consumed than produced.
And with the under-invested sector, production declies all over the cheaper, mature fields and miniscule new discoveries, the result is clear - long term, the price will go up.