Baker Hughes: US Oil Drillers Cut Rigs For 5th Week
Oct 2 (Reuters) - U.S. energy firms cut 26 oil rigs in the latest week, the biggest reduction since April and the fifth straight weekly decline, data showed on Friday, a sign low prices were pushing drillers away from the well pad.
The cutback for the week ended Oct. 2 brought the total rig count down to 614, the least since August, 2010. In the previous four weeks, drillers cut a total of 35 rigs, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report. U.S. crude prices rose 1.5 percent in the minutes after the report.
The latest rig count is less than half the 1,591 oil rigs in the same week a year ago and also far below the all-time high of 1,609 in October 2014. They have erased the 47 oil rigs energy firms added in July and August.
The summertime additions came when U.S. crude was priced around $60 a barrel. This week, U.S. oil averaged $45 a barrel, the same as during the month of September, on continued worries about lackluster global demand and oversupply.
U.S. crude futures jumped after Baker Hughes released the report on expectations of reduced crude production in the months ahead. Crude prices had been flat just before the report.
Baker Hughes also reported a reduction in natural gas rigs, bringing total U.S. rigs were to a 13-year low. Natural gas rigs were down two this week to 195, the lowest level in at least 28 years, according to the Baker Hughes data going back to 1987.
Drillers reduced the number of oil wells in all the major U.S. shale basins this week. Seven were cut in the Permian in West Texas and eastern New Mexico; five in the Eagle Ford in South Texas; two in the Niobrara in Colorado and Wyoming; and one in the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana.
Analysts at Simmons & Co International, an investment banking services firm, said in a note they expect oil and gas rig counts to decline in the fourth quarter of 2015 with the rate of decline stabilizing in the first half of 2016.
Despite drilling cutbacks, U.S. oil production edged up to 9.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in July from 9.3 million bpd in June, according to the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) 914 production report.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by David Gregorio)
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- Weatherford CEO's Rebound Plan Relies On Getting Smaller
- Iran Says Oil Market Is Too Tight For US Zero Exports Target
- China's Squeezed 'Teapots' Eye Petchem Path To Riches
- Baker Hughes: US Drillers Add Oil Rigs For Second Week In Three
- Venezuela Hands China More Oil Presence, But No Mention Of New Funds
- ExxonMobil Racks Up Discoveries in Guyana Block Eyed by Chevron
- Oil Market Sentiment Has Improved Significantly
- EU, US Eye Collaboration on Nuclear Materials
- USA Driving Activity to Increase to All-Time Highs
- TC Energy to Sell Prince Rupert Gas Pipeline Project to First Nation
- EU Electricity Export to Ukraine Up 94 Percent in Two Years
- China Coal Output Falls for First Time since Government Ordered More
- BP Pulse Buys One of Europe's Largest Truck Stops
- UK CCUS Plans Outdated: Think Tank
- North America Enters Rig Loss Streak
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- EIA Drops 2024 Henry Hub Gas Price Forecast
- EIA and Standard Chartered Offer Up Latest Oil Price Predictions
- Red Sea Region Sees Another Watershed Incident
- Chevron Oil Project in Kazakhstan to Cost $48.5B
- OPEC Voices Encouragement after IEA Affirms Support for Oil Security
- Biden Govt Bares Strategy for Freight Charging, Hydrogen Fueling Infra
- Ukraine Hits Third Russian Refinery In Escalating Drone Strikes
- Rystad Looks at the Buzz Around White Hydrogen
- VIDEO: Missile Attack Kills Crew Transiting Gulf of Aden
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- What Is the Biggest Risk to Offshore Oil and Gas Personnel in 2024?
- Is Peak Oil Demand Close?
- Vessel Sinks in Red Sea After Missile Strike
- JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Reveal Latest Oil Price Forecasts
- Exxon Rights in Stabroek Do Not Apply to Hess Merger with Chevron: Hess
- Rystad Forecasts Net Production of Top Permian Producers in 2024
- Analysts Reveal Latest Oil Price Outlook Following OPEC+ Cut Extension