U.S. Oil, Gas Rig Activity Dips In First Count Of New Year

The total number of total active drilling rigs in the United States fell by 7 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count fell to 772 this week—184 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2022, and 303 rigs lower than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, prior to the pandemic.

Oil rigs in the United States fell by 3 this week, to 618. Gas rigs fell by 4, to 152. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 2.

The rig count in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford stayed the same.

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 in the week ending December 30. The frac spread count is now 258, down 7 from the previous week. This is 32 fewer crews than a month ago and 24 more than this time last year.

Crude oil production in the United States increased to 12.1 million bpd level in the week ending December 30, according to the latest weekly EIA estimates. U.S. production levels are up just 300,000 bpd versus a year ago.

At 11:24 a.m. ET, the WTI benchmark was trading up $0.93 on the day (+1.26%) at $74.60 per barrel—but down roughly $4.50 per barrel since this time last week.

The Brent benchmark was trading up $0.82 (+1.04%) at $79.51 per barrel on the day, and down about $5 per barrel compared to last Friday. 

WTI was trading at $74.39 minutes after the data release, up nearly 1% on the day.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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