U.S. oil and gas rig count falls for second week

• The total number of active US oil and gas rigs fell by 2 this week to 586.
• U.S. crude oil production fell by 100,000 barrels per day in the week ended August 9.
• Oil prices, including benchmarks WTI and Brent, fell on Friday.

The total number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States fell this week, according to new data released Friday by Baker Hughes.

The total number of rigs fell by 2 to 586 this week compared to 642 rigs in the same period last year.

The oil rig count fell by 2 this week after rising by three the previous week. Oil installations are now at 483—down 37 compared to this time last year. The gas rig count rose by 1 this week to 98, a loss of 19 active gas rigs from this time last year. Various platforms dropped from 6 to 5.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production fell in the week ended Aug. 9, according to weekly estimates released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Current weekly oil production in the United States, according to the EIAfell 100,000 bpd, back to the previous record high of 13.3 million bpd.

Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells, fell in the week ended Aug. 9 from 243 to 240, partially offsetting last week’s gain of 6 crews.

Drilling activity in the Permian fell by 1 this week to 303, a figure that is 24 less than the same period last year. The number in the Eagle Ford fell by 2 this week to 48 after being flat the previous week. Rigs on the Eagle Ford are now 5 below where they were this time last year.

Oil prices continued to fall on Friday. At 12:35pm ET, the WTI benchmark was trading down $1.27 (-1.62%) on the day at $76.89 – a loss of $0.15 on the week-over-week basis. Benchmark Brent traded down $1.14 (-1.41%) on the day at $79.90 – a $0.10 week-over-week gain.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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