The total number of total active drilling rigs in the United States fell by 5 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published Friday, falling by more than 70 rigs over the last two months.
The total rig count fell to 682 this week—71 rigs below this time last year. The current count is 393 fewer rigs than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, prior to the pandemic.
The number of oil rigs declined by 6 this week to 546, while the number of gas rigs stayed the same, at 130. Gas rigs are now 27 below where they were a year ago, while oil rigs are 48 below. Miscellaneous rigs rose by 1 to 6.
The rig count in the Permian Basin fell by 1—and are now 8 rigs below this same time last year. The rig count in the Eagle Ford stayed the same, and was down 12 rigs from this time last year.
Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells (which is cheaper than drilling new wells), rose for a second week in a row--by 2 in the week ending June 16, to 268. The frac spread count is 16 behind where it was this time last year.
Adding to the trend of decreasing drilling activity, crude oil production levels in the United States fell to 12.2 million bpd in the week ending June 16, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates, returning to January levels. U.S. production levels are now up 200,000 bpd versus a year ago.
At 1:08 p.m. ET on Friday, the WTI benchmark was trading down $0.71 (-1.02%) on the day at $68.80.
The Brent benchmark was trading down $0.68 (-0.92%) at $73.46 per barrel on the day.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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