May 11, 2019//-The number of active oil and gas rigs fell again in the United States this week according to Baker Hughes, after a string of losses in the weeks prior, keeping the overall rig count well below year-ago levels for a fourth week in a row.
The total number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the United States fell by 2 according to the report, with the number of active oil rigs falling 2 to reach 805 and the number of gas rigs holding steady at 183.
At 10:43am EST, WTI was trading up slightly $0.05 (+0.08%) at $61.75—up on the day, but down on the week as traders struggle to accurately assess the state of the oil market with Iran sanction waivers ending and the China-US trade war taking a turn for the worse.
The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.21 (+0.30%) at $70.60, down slightly week on week.
While the United States has seen a significant drop in the number of active oil and gas rigs, US oil production continues to rise. US crude oil production fell slightly for week ending May 3, standing at 12.2 million barrels, easing off last week’s all-time high of 12.3 million barrels per day.
WTI was trading up 0.50% on the day at 1:08pm EST, with Brent up 0.70%.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
