2020 is starting off with two weeks of rig losses, according to Baker Hughes, with the US oil and gas rig count falling by 15 rigs for the week. The total oil and gas rig count is now 294 down from this time last year at a total of 781 rigs.
For oil rigs, this week saw a decrease of 11 rigs, according to Baker Hughes data. The total number of active gas rigs in the United States fell by 4 according to the report, to 119. This compares to 202 a year ago.
The US shed a total of 207 oil rigs throughout 2019, and continued the downward trend for the first two weeks of the year, while production grew from 11.7 million bpd at the beginning of 2019 to the all-time high of 12.9 million bpd for first week of 2020, the last week for which there is data.
The WTI benchmark at 11:08am was $58.94 per barrel-down a staggering $4.40 per barrel from this time last week, and down $0.62 (-1.04%) on the day. The Brent benchmark was trading at $64.95 per barrel, down at $68.66, down $3.71 on the week and down $0.42 (-0.64%) on the day.
Oil prices spiked earlier in the week following the US killing of Iranian military general Qassem Soleimani and the retaliation by Iran that saw rocket fire on US military bases in Iraq. But as tensions de-escalated, prices began to fall, and sharply.
Canada's overall rig count increased this week, with oil and gas rigs increasing by 118. Oil and gas rigs in Canada now stand at 203, up 19 year on year.
At 12 minutes past the hour, WTI was trading at $59.19 and Brent was trading at $65.22.
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