Oil, Gas Activity in U.S. Holds Steady

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count rose by 1 to 604 this week, compared to 720 rigs this same time last year.

The number of oil rigs rose by 1 this week, after falling by 3 in the week prior. Oil rigs now stand at 497--down by 78 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs stayed the same this week at 103, a loss of 38 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 4.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production stayed the same for the ninth week in a row at an average of 13.1 million bpd for the week ending May 10—down 200,000 bpd from the all-time high of 13.3 million bpd.

Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells that are unfinished, rose by 6 in the week ending May 10, to 258.

The Permian saw a 2-rig decrease after falling by 2 in the week prior. The count in the Eagle Ford fell by 1 this week after seeing no change in the week prior.

Oil prices were trading up on Friday with both benchmarks trading about $0.30 up per barrel. At 12:49 p.m. ET, moments before data release, the WTI benchmark was trading up $0.29 (+0.37%) on the day at $79.52. This is just over $1 per barrel higher than this same time last week.

The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.30 (+0.36%) at $83.57, a roughly $0.57 per barrel increase from a week ago.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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