Weekly rig count slightly down, but overall count is up 4% in the last month

The U.S. rig count fell by five in the last week, according to Enverus Rig Analytics. However, the firm said the count is up 4% in the last month and up 112% in the last year.

The Anadarko Basin has increased its rig count by eight (about 67%) over the last month to 54. Since the start of the year, activity levels in the basin are up 157%. The most active operators are Continental Resources, Citizen Energy, Marathon Oil and Mewbourne Oil.

After running an average of five rigs since mid-May, Continental added its sixth rig in the basin at the end of August, reaching double the number it was running at the start of the year. Marathon had been inactive in the region for five quarters when it activated a rig at the end of June. The company ramped to three in the final week of August. Mewbourne increased its drilling activity to three rigs in early September after running two since early June and starting the year with one. Camino Natural Resources, Devon Energy and Ovintiv are also each running two rigs.

This week, three offshore rigs returned in the Gulf of Mexico, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co. said in its weekly report. During the week ended Sept. 3, all 14 offshore oil rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico, all of which were located off Louisiana, shut due to Ida.

For the quarter, drillers added 51 rigs putting the count up for a fourth quarter in a row for the first time since December 2018. U.S. oil rigs rose by 10 this week, their highest since April 2020, while gas rigs fell by one, their lowest since August.

WTI crude futures in the U.S. were trading around $74/bbl on Sept. 24, putting them near their highest since July, as global output disruptions cause bigger than expected inventory draws. With oil prices up about 53% so far this year, some energy firms said they plan to boost spending in 2021 after cutting drilling and completion expenditures over the past two years.

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