The total number of total active drilling rigs in the United States fell by 5 this week, after a 6-rig increase last week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published Friday.
The total rig count fell to 675 this week—81 rigs below this time last year. The current count is 400 fewer rigs than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, prior to the pandemic.
The number of oil rigs declined by 3 this week to 537, while the number of gas rigs fell by 2, to 133. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 5.
The rig count in the Permian Basin fell by 5—13 rigs below this same time last year. The rig count in the Eagle Ford fell by 1, and was down 10 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), fell by 12 in the week ending July 7, to 260. The frac spread count is 25 behind where it was this time last year.
Crude oil production levels in the United States slipped back to 12.3 million bpd in the week ending July 7, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates—a gain of 100,000 bpd from the beginning of the year. U.S. production levels are now up 300,000 bpd versus a year ago.
At 12:53 p.m. ET on Friday, the WTI benchmark was trading down $1.27 (-1.65%) on the day at $75.62—up nearly $3 per barrel from this time last week. The Brent benchmark was trading down $1.26 (-1.55%) at $80.10 per barrel on the day—up $2.50 from a week ago.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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