In its report on Friday, Baker Hughes Co, an energy services firm, stated that energy companies in the United States have cut down the number of operating rigs for oil and natural gas for the third consecutive week.
The rig count, which indicates future output, decreased by three, reaching 748 in the week ending April 14. However, despite the reduction, Baker Hughes highlighted that the total count was still up by 55 rigs, or roughly 8%, compared to the same period last year.
During this week, the number of oil rigs in the United States declined by two, reaching 588, the lowest since June 2022, while gas rigs dropped by one to 157.
#Oil advances: The price of Brent crude futures rose by 0.5% to reach $83.10 per barrel, whereas West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures increased by 0.8%, reaching $82.92. Brent is expected to show a weekly increase of around 1.8%, while WTI has risen by 2.75%. https://t.co/OYhC7ZJfpU
— Share_Talk ™ (@Share_Talk) April 14, 2023
While U.S. oil futures experienced a 7% gain in 2022 and were up by approximately 3% this year, U.S. gas futures fell by about 53% this year, following a 20% increase in the previous year.
As a result of the decline in gas prices, exploration and production companies, such as Chesapeake Energy Corp, Southwestern Energy Co, and Comstock Resources Inc, have announced their plans to cut some gas rigs to reduce production.
Despite some companies’ plans to decrease rig counts, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) raised its forecast for crude output growth this week.
As per the EIA, U.S. crude production is expected to increase from 11.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 to 12.5 million bpd in 2023 and further to 12.8 million bpd in 2024. This is compared to a record of 12.3 million bpd in 2019.
Furthermore, according to federal energy data, U.S. gas production is projected to increase from a record of 98.09 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2022 to 100.87 bcfd in 2023 and 101.58 bcfd in 2024.
