U.S. Drilling Activity Slips

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count fell by 6 to 613 this week, compared to 755 rigs this same time last year.

The number of oil rigs fell by 5 this week, after gaining 5 in the week prior. Oil rigs now stand at 506--down by 85 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 1 this week to 105, a loss of 56 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 2.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production stayed the same for the seventh week in a row at an average of 13.1 million bpd for the week ending April 12—down 200,000 bpd from the all-time high of 13.3 million bpd.

Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells that are unfinished, ending a four week losing streak, gaining in the week ending April 19. Completions rose by 8 to 260 for the week, which is 30 fewer crews than this time last year.

The Permian saw a 1-rig decrease after gaining 2 in the week prior. The count in the Eagle Ford stayed the same this week after seeing no change in the week prior.

Oil prices were trading up on Friday with both benchmarks trading about $0.50 up per barrel. At 12:25 p.m. ET, before data release, the WTI benchmark was trading up $0.49 (+0.59%) on the day at $84.06. This is about $.90 above last week’s price at this time.

The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.54 (+0.61%) at $89.55, a roughly $2 per barrel increase from a week ago.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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