The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US falling to 598, up 49 from this same time last year.
The number of active oil rigs rose by 1, reaching 456 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 34 above this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2 to 133, which is 15 more than this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 9.
The latest EIA data showed that weekly U.S. crude oil production rose during week ending September 25. US crude oil production averaged 13.955 million bpd during the reporting period, up from 13.939 million bpd last week but up 450,000 bpd from a year ago.
Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells, rose again during the week ending September 25—the third gain in as many weeks, and up 8 crews from the week prior at 195.
The number of active drilling rigs in the Permian Basin stayed the same during the reporting period to 270. This is 19 rigs above year-ago levels. The count in the Eagle Ford lost a rig for the second week in a row, landing at 49, which is 4 more than this same time last year.
Oil prices were down on Friday prior to the data release as Europe announced it would release additional crude oil and diesel from emergency reserves, with Brent now trading at $101.10 (-1.14%) per barrel, nearly $3 down from this time last week. WTI was also trading down on the day at $90.50 (-2.55%).
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
