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Oil Prices Slip Amid Falling U.S. Rig Count

The number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States rose this week by 1 rig. Baker Hughes Rig Count last week was largely unchanged as well, with data for 47 counties South Texas largely unavailable last week due to the Hurricane, according to BH.

The total oil and gas rig count in the United States, two weeks post-Harvey, now stands at 944 rigs, up 436 rigs from the year prior, with the number of oil rigs in the United States decreasing by 3 this week and the number of gas rigs increasing by 4.

Oil rigs in the United States now number 756-342 rigs above this time last year.

The number of rigs fell in Arkoma Woodford (1), DJ-Niobrara (1), Fayetteville (1), and Granite Wash (1). Permian, Haynesville, and Cana Woodford, and Marcellus all gained two rigs.

Prices fell on Friday despite promises of decreased exports from Saudi Arabia for the month of October, with promises of a 350,000 bpd decline for the month, with exports to the United States to be below 600,000 bpd.  At 10:53pm EDT Friday, WTI was trading down 1.63 percent at US$48.29, with Brent trading down 0.48 percent at US$54.23-both benchmarks up from last week.   

Despite the small rise in the number of active rigs in the United States, US crude oil production slipped the week ending September 1 to 8,781 bpd-the first under-9,000 bpd week since February. Related: How EIA Guestimates Keep Oil Prices Subdued

Hurricane Irma is currently headed for Florida, and expected to weaken demand further in the coming week, as ports have closed ahead of the storm. Hurricane Katia is following closely behind, and expected to hit the Mexican coast by early tomorrow.

At 8 minutes after the hour, WTI was trading at $48.06 with Brent crude trading at $54.10.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Julianne Geiger

Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More