foreign news on may 12, energy services company baker hughes (baker hughes co.) said in a report on friday that the number of oil and gas rigs drilled by u.s. energy companies this week fell to the lowest in nearly a year, and the number of active natural gas rigs fell the drop was the largest since february 2016.
the u.s. oil and gas rig count, a leading indicator of future output, fell 17 to 731 in the week ended may 12, the lowest since june 2022, baker hughes data showed.
that brought the total rig count up 17, or 2%, from a year earlier, baker hughes said.
the u.s. oil rig count fell by 2 this week to 586, the lowest since june 2022, while the natural gas rig count dropped 16 to 141, the lowest since april last year.
u.s. crude futures are n about 13% so far this year, before rising about 7% in 2022. meanwhile, u.s. natural gas futures have fallen about 49% this year after rising about 20% last year.
the drop in natural gas prices has led some exploration and production companies, including chesapeake energy corp, southwestern energy co and comstock resources inc, to announce plans to cut some natural gas rigs to reduced production, especially in arkansas, louisiana and the hinesville shale play in texas.
the u.s. energy information administration (eia) reported in may that u.s. crude oil production was still on track to rise to a record high of 12.5 million bpd in 2023 from 11.9 million bpd in 2022, despite plans by some companies to reduce the number of rigs , the production in 2024 will be 12.7 million barrels per day.
the last record output was 12.3 million bpd in 2019.
