By Adewale Sanyaolu
The total number of total active drilling rigs in the United States rose by three last week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published at the weekend.
The total rig count rose to 775 this week—174 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2022, and 300 rigs lower than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Oil rigs in the United States rose by five last week, to 623. Gas rigs fell by 2, to 150. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at two.
The rig count in the Permian Basin rose by three, while rigs in the Eagle Ford rose by two
Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells—a more frugal use of finances than drilling new wells—fell for the sixth week in a row for the week ending January 6. The frac spread count is now 250, down eight from the previous week. This is 35 fewer crews than a month ago but six more than this time last year.
Crude oil production in the United States increased to 12.2 million bpd level in the week ending January 6, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates. U.S. production levels are up 500,000 bpd versus a year ago.
At 11:30 a.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading up $1.23 on the day (+1.57 per cent) at $79.62 per barrel—a $5 per barrel gain about two weeks ago
The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.93 (+1.11%) at $84.96 per barrel on the day, and up about $5.50 per barrel compared to January 6.
WTI was trading at $9.62 minutes after the data release, up nearly 1.6 per cent on the day.