The total number of active rigs in the United States fell by 9 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes released on Friday, after falling by 11 last week and 17 the previous week.
The total number of platforms fell to 711 this week, which is 16 platforms below the same period last year. The current number is 364 platforms less than the number of platforms at the start of 2019, before the pandemic.
The number of rigs fell by 5 this week to 570. Gas rigs fell by 4 to 137. Miscellaneous rigs remained the same at 4.
The number of rigs in the Permian Basin rebounded from 1 to just 8 above this time last year. The number of platforms in the Eagle Ford has also increased by 1.
Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells – a more economical use of finance than drilling new wells, fell 10 for the second straight week in the week ending May 19 , at 262 – the lowest number of active completion teams since January. Fracking crews have declined in numbers for three straight weeks, losing a total of 32. Year-over-year, that’s 26 fewer than a year ago.
U.S. crude oil production levels increased in the week ending May 19, returning to 12.3 million bpd, according to the latest EIA weekly estimates. US production levels are up just 400,000 bpd from a year ago.
At 12:59 p.m. ET, the Reference WTI was trading up $0.60 (+0.84%) on the day at $72.43, up $1 a barrel from the same time last week.
The benchmark Brent was trading up $0.39 (+0.51%) at $76.65 a barrel on the day, up $1 a barrel from last Friday.
WTI was trading at $72.53 minutes after the data was released, up 0.97% on the day.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
