The the number of active oil and gas rigs fell again in the United States this week according to Baker Hughes, after a string of losses in the weeks prior, keeping the overall rig count well below year-ago levels for a sixth week in a row.
The total number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the United States fell by 1 according to the report, with the number of active oil rigs falling 3 to reach 802 and the number of gas rigs increasing by 2 to reach 185.
The combined oil and gas rig count is 987, with oil seeing a 42-rig decrease year on year and gas rigs down 15 since this time last year. The combined oil and gas rig count is down 59 year on year.
Year-to-date, the oil rig count has fallen from 877 active rigs on January 4 to 802, while gas rigs have fallen from 198 to 185 during that same time. Oil rigs are now at their lowest since March 2018, according to Baker Hughes.
At 12:43am EST, moments before data release, WTI was trading down slightly by $0.08 (-0.13%) at $62.79, but up $1 per barrel on the week as the now-flighty market receives mixed messages after oil tanker attacks near the Strait of Hormuz, pipeline attacks in Saudi Arabia, escalating China/US trade tensions, and signs that global demand growth for oil might just be disappointing.
The Brent benchmark was trading down as well, by $0.58 (-0.80%) at $72.04, but up about $1.50 week on week.
US oil production, too, fell for two weeks in a row, with week ending May 10 coming in at 12.1 million bpd-200,000 bpd off the April 26 high of 12.3 million bpd.
Canada's rig count held steady at 63, with neither oil or gas losing or gaining in number. Canada's oil rigs are now down 16 year on year, with gas rigs down 4 year on year.
WTI was trading down 0.13% on the day at 1:11pm EST, with Brent down 0.83%.
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