U.S. energy companies added 12 oil rigs this week, the biggest weekly increase since March, as crude prices hovered near their highest levels since 2014, prompting drillers to return to the well pad. Drillers boosted the oil rig count to 759 in the week to Jan. 26, the highest level since September, General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday.
More than half of those oil rigs were located in the Permian basin in west Texas and eastern New Mexico where the number of active units increased by 18 this week to 427, the most since January 2015. That was the biggest one-week increase in rigs in the Permian since November 2013.
Those rigs were expected to help boost oil output in the Permian to a record high near 2.9 million barrels per day in February, according to federal projections, representing about 30 percent of total U.S. oil production. The total U.S. oil rig count, an early indicator of future output, is much higher than a year ago when only 566 rigs were active after energy companies started to boost spending in mid 2016 as crude started recovering from a two-year price crash.
Oil prices dipped on Monday as soaring North American production was seen undermining efforts led by OPEC and Russia to tighten supplies. Despite this, traders said overall market conditions remained strong due to the production cuts and healthy demand-growth. Brent crude futures held above $70 per barrel, but were down by 19 cents from their last close at $70.34 a barrel at 0749 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $66.19 a barrel, up 5 cents. Despite generally bullish sentiment, analysts said the market was coming under pressure from rising output in North America. U.S. crude production has grown by over 17 percent since mid-2016 to 9.88 million barrels per day (bpd) in mid-January.
Output is expected to break through 10 million bpd soon. U.S. energy companies added 12 oil rigs drilling for new production last week, taking the total to 759, General Electric Baker Hughes energy services firm said on Friday. U.S. production is already on par with top exporter and OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia. Only Russia produces more, averaging 10.98 million bpd in 2017.
There are also signs that Canadian oil production, already at 335,000 bpd, could start to rise as investment in its shale sector picks up. Canada’s overall crude production currently stands at 4.2 million bpd. Oil major Total said on Monday that production at its Fort Hill oil sands project has started and that output would reach 180,000 bpd over the next few months.
JP Morgan said it expected prices to fall towards the end of the year as markets become “flush with oil from shale and other unconventional oils”.
