The Oil And Gas Rig Count Continues To Soar

• The number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States climbed for a 17^th straight week, with both natural gas and oil rigs increasing.
• The number of active natural gas rigs climbed by six while the number of active oil rigs increased by four.
• Oil prices were trending down on Friday morning while natural gas prices continued to climb.

The number of active drilling rigs in the United States rose by 10 this week—the 17^th straight weekly increase to the number of oil and gas rigs in the United States.

The total rig count now has now reached 645 as the price of crude slipped for its first weekly decline in nine weeks.

Baker Hughes reported this week that the total active rig figure—oil, gas, and miscellaneous—is 248 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2021.

Oil-directed rigs rose 4 to 520, while gas-directed rigs were up by 6 to 124. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same.

U.S. weekly production of crude oil stayed the same this week at 11.6 million bpd, according to the latest Energy Information Administration for the week ending February 11.

The rig count in the Permian Basin rose by 5 this week, bringing the total rig count in the prolific Permian basin to 306. Rigs in the DJ-Niobrara basin saw an increase of 2 rigs.

Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, which tracks the number of completion crews finishing off previously drilled wells, shows that completion crews rose for the sixth week in a row by 11 to 275 for week ending February 11. The frac spread count is now up 114 from a year ago.

At 11:03 a.m. EST, oil prices were trending down the day, on reports that an Iranian nuclear deal could be closer than ever. WTI was trading at $91.34—down 0.46% on the day and down $0.40 per barrel on the week. The Brent benchmark traded at $92.81 per barrel at that time,  down 0.17% on the day.  

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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