Baker Hughes reported a 2-rig decrease to the number of oil and gas rigs this week. The total number of oil and gas rigs now stands at 993, which is an addition of 169 rigs year over year.
The number of oil rigs in the United States decreased by 7 this week, for a total of 797 active oil wells in the US-a figure that is 135 more rigs than this time last year. The number of gas rigs rose by 4 this week, and now stands at 194; 34 rigs above this week last year.
The oil and gas rig count in the United States has increased by 69 in 2018.
While US drillers seem determined to add rigs, Canada continued this week its (seasonal) losing streak, with a decrease of 27 oil and gas rigs, after losing 58 rigs last week, 54 rigs the week before, and 29 rigs the week before that. At just 134 total rigs, Canada now has 21 fewer rigs than it did a year ago.
Oil prices are down this week versus last Friday, with both benchmarks losing about $1 per barrel as API and EIA crude oil inventory data showed a build Also weighing on prices this week is US crude oil production, which continued its uptick in the week ending March 23, reaching 10.433 million bpd-the fifth build in as many weeks.
While prices are down week over week, on the day, both benchmarks were up ahead of the data. At 12:44 pm EST, the price of a WTI barrel was trading up $0.29 (+0.45%) to $64.67. The Brent barrel was trading up by $0.26 (0.38%) at $69.02.
At 1:08pm EST, WTI was trading at $64.83 (+$0.45) and Brent was trading at $69.18 (+$0.42).
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More
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