The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell by 5 this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rigs gained this year to just 2.
The total rig count fell by 5 to 624 this week, compared to 758 rigs this same time last year.
The number of oil rigs fell by 1 this week after seeing a gain of 6 in the week prior. Oil rigs now stand at 509--down by 84 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs also fell this week, by 4 to 112, a loss of 50 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 3.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production stayed the same at an average of 13.1 million bpd in the week ending March 15, 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, returned to gaining, rising in the week ending March 15. Completions rose by 6 to 269 for the week.
The Permian saw a 1-rig decrease after increasing by 3 the week before. The count in the Eagle Ford stayed the same this week after seeing a 3-rig gain in the week prior.
Oil prices were trading down on Friday morning. At 11:39 a.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading down $0.24 (-0.30%) on the day at $80.83, down roughly $0.35 per barrel week over week.
The Brent benchmark was trading down $0.22 (-0.26%) at $85.56, up roughly $0.20 per barrel from a week ago.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More