Baker Hughes reported on Friday that the number of oil and gas rigs in the United States increased by 13 this week, adding another bearish element to the market after OPEC+ announced it would ease up on its production cut restrictions.
Last week, the U.S. rig count increased by 6. The total number of active oil and gas rigs in the U.S. now stands at 430, which is 234 fewer than this time last year.
The oil rig count increased by 13 this week to 337, and the number of gas rigs fell by 1 to 91. The number of miscellaneous rigs increased by 1.
The EIA’s estimate for oil production in the United States for the week ending March 26 rose by 100,000 bpd this week to 11.1 million barrels, where it has hovered roughly since October, except for the temporary dropoff during a two-week span due to the Texas Freeze.
Canada’s overall rig count decreased this week by 12. Oil and gas rigs in Canada now sit at 69 active rigs, up 28 on the year.
The Permian basin saw an increase this week in the number of rigs. The Permian’s total rig count rose by 3, bringing the total active rigs in the Permian to 224, or 127 below this time last year.
Check back here later for an exclusive early peek at the Frac Spread by Primary Vision.
The WTI and Brent crude oil benchmarks are still experiencing a high amount of volatility.
While the market is still soaking up renewed lockdowns in Europe on rising coronavirus case counts and OPEC’s downward adjustment on its 2021 oil demand outlook, oil prices remained strong on Thursday heading into the holiday weekend.
At 2:00 p.m. EDT, WTI was trading up $2.13 per barrel on the day at $61.29—although essentially flat on the week.
The Brent benchmark was trading up $1.95 per barrel on the day, at $64.69 per barrel.
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By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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