The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday.
The total rig count rose by 1 to 620 this week, compared to 771 rigs this same time last year.
The number of oil rigs fell by 2 this week, settling at 497--down by 116 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs rose by 3 this week to 120, a loss of 36 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed at 3.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production rose to an average of 13.3 million bpd in the week ending January 12—returning to a previous all-time high that was originally set on December 15. This level is a 131 million bpd increase from the same week in 2022.
Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells that are unfinished, fell for the fifth straight week in the week ending January 12. Completion crews fell by 2 to 234 for January 12. This follows a string of weekly decreases in completion activity that dipped by 44 over the previous five weeks. The frac spread count is now at its lowest level since December 31, 2021.
The Permian saw a decline of 2 rigs for the second week in a row, while the Eagle Ford saw now change. Rigs stayed the same in the Williston basin despite subzero temperatures knocking 650,000 bpd of production in North Dakota offline due to equipment failures, among other things.
Oil prices were trading down on Friday afternoon. At 12:33 p.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading down $0.76 (-1.03%) on the day at $73.32 as escalations in the Red Sea spark supply fears. While down on the day, that price level is a $0.26 increase from last week at this time.
The Brent benchmark was trading down $0.66 (-0.83%) at $78.44, a decrease of $0.11 per barrel from a week ago.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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