The total number of active drilling rigs in the United States fell by 7 this week after climbing by 1 last week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published Friday, with the number of active oil rigs plunging to their lowest level since January 28 of last year.
The total rig count fell to 618 this week. So far this year, Baker Hughes has estimated a loss of 161 active drilling rigs. This week’s count is 457 fewer rigs than the rig count at the beginning of 2019 prior to the pandemic.
The number of oil rigs fell by 8 to 496, down by 125 so far in 2023, and the lowest level since January 2022. The number of gas rigs rose by 1 this week to 118, a loss of 38 active gas rigs from the start of the year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same.
The rig count in the Permian Basin fell by 3 this week, and is now 36 rigs below this same time last year. The rig count in the Eagle stayed the same and is 19 fewer than this time last year.
Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished, rose in the week ending October 27, to 275, up from 269 in the week prior. The frac spread count is 17 more than where it started the year.
Crude oil production levels in the United States stayed steady at 13.2 million bpd for week ending October 27, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates, the highest production level in the United States ever. U.S. production levels are now up 1 million bpd from the start of the year, according to estimated weekly figures.
At 12:10 p.m. ET on Friday, the WTI benchmark was trading down $0.47 (-0.57%) on the day at $81.99—down roughly $2.60 per barrel from this time last week. The Brent benchmark was trading down $0.53 (-0.61%) at $86.32 per barrel on the day—down roughly $3 per barrel from a week ago.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Despite the fall, the EIA will soon declare a rise in US production to 13.3 million barrels a day (mbd).
The whole world is now used to hyping by the EIA about US production. There were many complaints about the EIA’s hyping by many veterans of the shale oil revolution who repeatedly asked the EIA to provide realistic production figures but to no avail.
The only people who believe the EIA production figures are its partners in the hype, namely the IEA, Rystad Energy and the Financial Times.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Global Energy Expert