Oil prices bounced around today on a variety on news entering the market.

All eyes were on Janet Yellen who spoke this morning from a symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Speculation on when and if the Fed will raise rates has influenced the strength of the U.S. dollar. News of a Yemeni missile strike on Saudi Arabia boosted prices for a brief period. The other influence on oil price came from Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih, who watered down expectations that OPEC would reach an agreement next month to cut production.

The release of the Baker Hughes rig count saw oil price return to where it started the day.

The streak of eight straight weeks with oil rig gains ended this week as Baker Hughes reported that the rig count decreased by two rigs to 489 in the past week, with oil rigs unchanged and gas rigs falling by two. U.S. Rig Count is down 388 rigs from last year’s count of 877, with oil rigs down 269, gas rigs down 121, and miscellaneous rigs up 2. Last week, all ten added rigs extracted oil, which brought the oil rig count above 400 for the first time since February.

Several basins has rig count deplete by one or two, with only two basins gaining in rig count. The rig count in the Marcellus ticked up by one, and the rig count in the Permian rose by three rigs. This is the fifteenth week in a row without a downswing in rigs drilling in the Permian.

The Canadian rig count increased by 25 rigs, with oil rigs gaining 19 and gas rigs increasing by 6. Canadian rig count has surged over the last few months, increasing by 306% from a low of 36 on May 6, 2016.


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