US Oil, Gas activity declines

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States declined in the last week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count fell by 6 to 594 this week, compared to 695 rigs this same time in 2023. 

The number of oil rigs fell by 4 last week, after staying the same in the week prior. Oil rigs now stand at 492--down by 64 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2 last week to 98, a loss of 37 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 4.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil production stayed the same for the twelfth week in a row at an average of 13.1 million bpd for the week ending May 31—down 200,000 bpd from the all-time high of 13.3 million bpd.

Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, an estimate of the number of crews completing wells that are unfinished, fell for the second week in a row—by 4—in the week ending May 31. The frac spread count now stands at 253.

Drilling activity in the Permian stayed the same at 310 this week, after falling by 2 in the week prior. The count in the Eagle Ford also stayed the same this week, holding at 51 after increasing by 1 in the week prior.

Oil prices began to inch up on Friday after a rough week for prices after OPEC+ laid out its plan for rolling back its production cuts later this year—subject to market conditions.  At 9:12 a.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading up $0.13 (+0.17%) on the day at $75.68—about $1.40 below last Friday’s price.

The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.03 (+0.04%) at $79.90, roughly $1.50 per barrel below week-ago levels.