The US oil and gas rig count fell by 4 this week, according to Baker Hughes, after a string of losses that have stripped away 36 rigs since the beginning of May.
The total number of active oil rigs in the United States fell by 5 according to the report, reaching 779. The number of active gas rigs increased by 2 to reach 174. Miscellaneous rigs fell by 1.
The combined oil and gas rig count is now 954 for the week, with oil seeing a 79-rig decrease year on year and gas rigs down 13 since this time last year. The combined oil and gas rig count is down 92 year on year.
Year-to-date, the oil rig count has fallen from 858 active rigs since the beginning of the year to 779, while gas rigs have fallen from 187 to 174 during that same time.
Oil prices fell sharply this week even as tensions in the Middle East rose and fell, ultimately failing to boost prices that were pressured on reports of increasing crude oil and gasoline inventories in the United States.
At 11:20am EST today WTI was down $0.02 (-0.04%) at $55.40—nearly $5 down week on week. The Brent benchmark was slightly up on the day, by $0.22 (+0.36%) at $62.15, but was still down almost $4 per barrel under the prices this time last week.
US production fell for week ending July 12 to 12.0 million bpd, 400,000 bpd off from the all-time high, and the lowest production level since the beginning of March.
Canada’s overall rig count saw an increase this week of 1 after decreasing by 3 last week. Canada’s oil rigs are down by 59 year on year, with gas rigs down 34 year on year.
Overall, the number of active oil and gas rigs have fallen by 185 year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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