Permian Takes The Lead As U.S. Drillers Add 16 Rigs

The number of total active drilling rigs in the United States rose by 16 this week. The total rig count increased to 689 this week—257 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2021. Oil rigs in the United States rose by 13 rigs to 546, while gas rigs rose by 3 to 141. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same. While drilling activity has picked up in the United States over the last few months, U.S. production—a corollary to drilling rigs but with months of lag—has been slow to tick up after the losses sustained during the Covid crisis. U.S. weekly production of crude rose slightly last week to 11.8 million bpd, according to the latest Energy Information Administration for the week ending April 1. The rig count in the Permian Basin rose by 9 this week to 332. Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, which tracks the number of completion crews finishing off previously drilled wells, shows that completion crews rose to 273 in the week ending April 1, up from 270 in the week ending March 25. At 12:01 p.m. EST, oil prices were trending up on the day but down on the week, with news of the major U.S. and IEA crude oil stockpile release and Shanghai lockdowns continue to cap price hikes. At that time, WTI was trading at $96.93—up 0.94% on the day and down nearly $4 per barrel on the week. The Brent benchmark traded at $101.30 per barrel at that time, up 0.71% on the day and down roughly $4 per barrel on the week. At 1:04 p.m. ET, WTI crude had risen by $0.89 on the day to $96.92, while Brent crude had risen by $0.76 to $101.30.