U.S. Oil-Rig Count Down by 5 in Latest Week
January 19 2018 - 2:02PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. declined by five
this week to 747, breaking a streak of increases, according to
Baker Hughes, a GE company.
The weekly rig count has become a key barometer for the health
of the domestic drilling industry and, by proxy, the wider oil and
gas industry.
The U.S. oil-rig count peaked at 1,609 in October 2014 but
plunged to 316 in May 2016 as a drop in oil prices put downward
pressure on production. Since that time, the count had generally
been rising before leveling off last August.
Meanwhile, the U.S. gas-rig count rose by two to 189 in the past
week, according to the oil-field services company.
The U.S. offshore-rig count was unchanged at 19, down five rigs
from a year earlier.
U.S. crude production is expected to climb above 10 million
barrels a day in 2018, a high not seen since 1970, and surpass
output in Saudi Arabia and rival that of Russia, the world's two
largest oil producers, the International Energy Agency said Friday
in its closely watched monthly oil market report.
The IEA raised its outlook for U.S. crude supply this year by
260,000 barrels a day, to a record 10.4 million barrels a day.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, oil prices were down 0.6%
at $63.35 a barrel in afternoon trading on Friday. Brent crude, the
global benchmark, was down 0.7% at $68.65.
--Christopher Alessi contributed to this article
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 19, 2018 13:47 ET (18:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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