Oil Rebounds As U.S. Drillers Continue To Pull Back

The total number of total active drilling rigs in the United States fell by 9 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published Friday, after falling by 11 last week and 17 the week before that. The total rig count fell to 711 this week—16 rigs below this time last year. The current count is 364 fewer rigs than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, prior to the pandemic. The number of rigs fell by 5 this week to 570. Gas rigs fell by 4 to 137. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 4. The rig count in the Permian Basin saw a rebound of 1—just 8 above this time last year. The rig count in the Eagle Ford also rose by 1. Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished wells—a more frugal use of finances than drilling new wells, fell by 10 for the second week in a row in the week ending May 19, to 262—the lowest number of completion crews in operation since January. Fracking crews have diminished in number for three weeks in a row, losing a total of 32. Year over year, it is 26 fewer than a year ago. Crude oil production levels in the United States rose in the week ending May 19, back to 12.3 million bpd, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates. U.S. production levels are up just 400,000 bpd versus a year ago. At 12:59 p.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading up $0.60 (+0.84%) on the day at $72.43, up $1 per barrel from this time last week. The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.39 (+0.51%) at $76.65 per barrel on the day, up $1 per barrel from last Friday. WTI was trading at $72.53 minutes after the data release, up 0.97% on the day.