The number of oil and gas rigs in the US is increasing

The total number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States rose substantially this week, bucking a recent downward trend, according to new data released Friday by Baker Hughes.

The total number of rigs increased by 8 to 590 this week compared to 641 rigs in the same period last year.

The oil rig count rose by 5 this week after remaining flat for the past three weeks. Oil rigs now stand at 488, down 27 compared to this time last year. The gas rig count rose by 3 this week to 97, a loss of 24 active gas rigs from this time last year. The various platforms remained the same at 5.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production was flat in the week ended Sept. 6, according to weekly estimates released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Current weekly US oil production, according to the EIA, is just 100,000 short of its all-time high.

Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells, fell again in the week ended Sept. 6 from 222 to 220, adding to the past four weeks of losses.

Drilling activity in the Permian remained the same this week at 306, a figure that is 16 fewer than the same period last year. The Eagle Ford count was flat this week at 48 after being flat the previous week. Installations on the Eagle Ford are now 1 below where they were at this time last year.

Oil prices rose slightly on Friday as they tried to find solid footing after a tough few weeks in which more than $10 was cut from a barrel of Brent, in the absence of a fundamental change to justify such a decline. At 12:20 pm ET, benchmark WTI was trading up $0.29 (+0.42%) on the day at $69.26 – a gain of nearly $2 week over week. Benchmark Brent traded up $0.28 (+0.44%) on the day at $72.29, a gain of about $1.50 a barrel compared to last Friday.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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