Number of active drilling rigs in U.S. continues downtrend amid hiking oil prices

Source: Xinhua    2018-07-01 03:24:13

HOUSTON, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States fell by five this week to 1,047, while the crude oil prices have been keeping rising for a week.

The Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that the number of oil rigs operating in the United States fell by four while those seeking natural gas dropped by one, driving the overall rig count down to 1,047, but still 107 more than that this time last year, showed weekly data collected by Baker Hughes released Friday.

There are now 858 rigs drilling for oil with more than half of them - 474 - situated in the Permian Basin region of West Texas and New Mexico. There are exactly 187 gas-seeking rigs and two miscellaneous rigs.

Baker Hughes reported a fall of seven active rigs in the previous week.

Meanwhile, Canada, for its part, gained 12 oil rigs for the week-after previous week's gain of 21 oil and gas rigs, but still down by 17 year over year.

U.S. crude oil inventories decreased again. According to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased by 9.9 million barrels during the week ending June 22.

In the previous week ending on June 15, EIA reported a draw of 5.9 million barrels. For the same week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a draw of 9.2 million barrels.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged about 17.8 million barrels per day during the week ending June 22, which was 115,000 barrels per day more than the previous week's average.

At 416.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 4 percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 1.2 million barrels last week and are about 6 percent above the five-year range. Finished gasoline inventories decreased while blending components inventories increased last week.

Distillate fuel inventories remained unchanged last week and are about 14 percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.2 million barrels per day, up by 1.5 percent from the same period last year.

Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.5 million barrels per day, down by 0.1 percent from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.8 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, down by 2.5 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 3.7 percent compared with the same four-week period last year.

Oil prices were sluggish for most of June, although the prices have shown an upswing starting June 22 as OPEC reached a deal for only modest oil production hikes.

Oil prices continued to rally on Friday after data showed the number of active U.S. drilling rigs declined this week.

A weaker U.S. dollar also made the dollar-priced commodity more attractive for holders of other currencies. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.68 percent to 94.662 at 3:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Friday.

Meanwhile, the energy market has been reacting to threats from the Trump administration this week, who indicated that the White House would look to sanction countries that don't reduce their imports of Iranian crude to "zero" by Nov. 4.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August delivery rose 0.70 U.S. dollar to settle at 74.15 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for August delivery added 1.59 dollars to 79.44 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Editor: Mu Xuequan
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Number of active drilling rigs in U.S. continues downtrend amid hiking oil prices

Source: Xinhua 2018-07-01 03:24:13

HOUSTON, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States fell by five this week to 1,047, while the crude oil prices have been keeping rising for a week.

The Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported that the number of oil rigs operating in the United States fell by four while those seeking natural gas dropped by one, driving the overall rig count down to 1,047, but still 107 more than that this time last year, showed weekly data collected by Baker Hughes released Friday.

There are now 858 rigs drilling for oil with more than half of them - 474 - situated in the Permian Basin region of West Texas and New Mexico. There are exactly 187 gas-seeking rigs and two miscellaneous rigs.

Baker Hughes reported a fall of seven active rigs in the previous week.

Meanwhile, Canada, for its part, gained 12 oil rigs for the week-after previous week's gain of 21 oil and gas rigs, but still down by 17 year over year.

U.S. crude oil inventories decreased again. According to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased by 9.9 million barrels during the week ending June 22.

In the previous week ending on June 15, EIA reported a draw of 5.9 million barrels. For the same week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a draw of 9.2 million barrels.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged about 17.8 million barrels per day during the week ending June 22, which was 115,000 barrels per day more than the previous week's average.

At 416.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 4 percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 1.2 million barrels last week and are about 6 percent above the five-year range. Finished gasoline inventories decreased while blending components inventories increased last week.

Distillate fuel inventories remained unchanged last week and are about 14 percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.2 million barrels per day, up by 1.5 percent from the same period last year.

Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.5 million barrels per day, down by 0.1 percent from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.8 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, down by 2.5 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 3.7 percent compared with the same four-week period last year.

Oil prices were sluggish for most of June, although the prices have shown an upswing starting June 22 as OPEC reached a deal for only modest oil production hikes.

Oil prices continued to rally on Friday after data showed the number of active U.S. drilling rigs declined this week.

A weaker U.S. dollar also made the dollar-priced commodity more attractive for holders of other currencies. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.68 percent to 94.662 at 3:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Friday.

Meanwhile, the energy market has been reacting to threats from the Trump administration this week, who indicated that the White House would look to sanction countries that don't reduce their imports of Iranian crude to "zero" by Nov. 4.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August delivery rose 0.70 U.S. dollar to settle at 74.15 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for August delivery added 1.59 dollars to 79.44 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

[Editor: huaxia]
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