U.S. Oil Rig Count Continues To Drop

The total number of active drilling rigs in the United States fell by 6 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published Friday.

The total rig count fell to 669 this week. So far this year, Baker Hughes has estimated a loss of more than 100 active drilling rigs. This week’s count is also 406 fewer rigs than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, prior to the pandemic.

The number of oil rigs declined by 7 this week to 530, down by 91 so far in 2023. The number of gas rigs fell by 2, to 131, a loss of 25 active gas rigs from the start of the year. Miscellaneous rigs gained 3 rigs this last week.

The rig count in the Permian Basin fell by 4—16 rigs below this same time last year. The rig count in the Eagle Ford fell by 2, and is now 13 fewer than 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), inched up by 3 in the week ending July 14, to 263. The frac spread count is 5 higher than where it started the year.

Crude oil production levels in the United States stayed steady at 12.3 million bpd in the week ending July 14, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates—a gain of just 100,000 bpd from the beginning of the year.  U.S. production levels are now up 400,000 bpd versus a year ago.

At 12:47 p.m. ET on Friday, the WTI benchmark was trading up $0.91 (+1.20%) on the day at $76.56—up nearly $1 per barrel from this time last week. The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.87 (+1.09%) at $80.51 per barrel on the day—up about $0.50 from a week ago.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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