The number of total active drilling rigs in the United States rose by 3 this week, as WTI trades at more than $100.90 per barrel.
The total rig count increased to 673 this week—243 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2021.
Oil rigs in the United States rose by 2 rigs to 533, while gas rigs rose by 1 to 138. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same.
While drilling activity has picked up in the United States over the last few months, U.S. production—a corollary to drilling rigs but with months of lag—has not. While Americans bemoan the high price of gasoline at the pump, U.S. weekly production of crude rose for the first time in ten weeks to 11.7 million bpd, according to the latest Energy Information Administration for the week ending March 25.
The rig count in the Permian Basin rose by 4 this week to 323.
Primary Vision's Frac Spread Count, which tracks the number of completion crews finishing off previously drilled wells, shows that completion crews rose to 270 from 266 in the week ending March 25.
At 12:13 p.m. EST, oil prices were trending up on the day after sinking on Thursday after the Biden Administration announced a massive release of 180 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR over the next 6 months.
At that time, WTI was trading at $100.60 per barrel—up 0.33% on the day and down roughly $13 per barrel on the week. The Brent benchmark traded at $105.60 per barrel at that time, up 0.84% on the day and down roughly $14 per barrel on the week.
At 1:8 p.m. ET, WTI crude had fallen by $0.90 to $99.38, while Brent crude had slipped by $0.23 to $104.50.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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