U.S. Rig Count Unchanged After Crazy Week In Oil Markets

There has been no net change to the number of active drilling rigs in the United States this week, according to Baker Hughes.

The total rig count remains at 569—a figure that is 246 up from this time last year. Active rigs are still hundreds less than the 790 active rigs that were drilling in the pre-covid world.

The U.S. oil rig count rose stayed at 467, while gas rigs stayed at 102. Miscellaneous rigs stayed at zero.  

The EIA's estimate for oil production in the United States for the week ending November 26 rose 100,000 bpd for the second week in a row to 11.6 million bpd.

Oil production is still below the 13.1 million bpd record set last year before the pandemic took hold in the United States.

Canada's overall rig count increased by 9. Active oil and gas rigs in Canada are now at 180, up 78 on the year. 

The rig count in the Permian Basin increased by 3 this week, with 119 rigs added since last year. The number of rigs in the nation's second most prolific basin, the Eagle Ford, saw no change to the number of active rigs. The Permian's total rig count is now 283, with 42 total in the Eagle Ford.

Primary Vision's Frac Spread Count, which tracks the number of completion crews finishing off previously drilled wells, shows that completion crews rose by 4 this week to 274 for week ending November 26. The frac count is up by more than 140 since the start of the year.

At 11:46 p.m. EDT, oil prices were trending up on the day despite renewed coronavirus fears and the announcement of a planned OPEC+ output hike for January.  WTI was trading at $67.91—up 2.12% on the day and down roughly $1.25 per barrel on the week. The Brent benchmark traded at $71.45, up 2.55% on the day and down roughly $2.35 per barrel on the week.