Oil Rig Count Dip: WTI Bounces Back to $70

By Julianne Geiger – Dec 08, 2023, 12:13 PM CST

This week, the total number of active drilling rigs in the United States rose by 1, following a rise of 3 rigs the previous week, according to new data published by Baker Hughes on Friday.

The total rig count is now 626 this week. Baker Hughes estimated a loss of 158 active drilling rigs since this time last year. This week’s count is 449 fewer rigs than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, before the pandemic.

The number of oil rigs fell by 2 to 503, which is 122 fewer compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs, however, rose by 3 this week to 119, a loss of 34 active gas rigs from this time last year. The number of miscellaneous rigs stayed the same.

The rig count in the Permian Basin experienced a decline of 1 rig this week, and is now 37 rigs below the same time last year. The rig count in the Eagle Ford, however, rose by 2 rigs, standing at 52—20 fewer than this time last year.

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Primary Vision’s Frac Spread Count, which is an estimate of the number of crews completing unfinished work, fell by 5 in the week to November 29 to 276, down from 281 in the prior week. The frac spread count is 18 more than it was at the beginning of the year.

Oil prices were trading up on Friday. At 12:36 p.m. ET on Friday, the WTI benchmark was trading up $1.54 (+2.22%) on the day at $70.88. While this was up on the day, it is still down more than $5 compared to this time last week. The Brent benchmark was trading up $1.51 (+2.04%) at $75.56, also down more than $5 per barrel from a week ago.

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