The U.S. rig count hits 665, one rig higher than at this time last year

The recovery in oil prices has spurred operators in the United States to add more rigs to the active fleet. This has pushed the total number of rigs higher in the first week of 2017 than the first week of last year, as prices continued to fall. There are currently 665 total rigs drilling in the United States, according to Baker Hughes Industries (ticker: BHI), which is symbolic in that the rig count is one more than at this time last year.

Rigs drilling for both crude oil and natural gas increased week-over-week, according to BHI. There are currently 529 rigs drilling for oil and 135 drilling for gas, four and three more rigs than in the previous week, respectively. Compared to year-ago levels, there are currently 13 more rigs targeting oil, while the number of rigs searching for gas has decreased by 13 in the same time period.

An increasing number of basins are beginning to see new activity as oil prices remain above $50 per barrel. The Cana Woodford, DJ, Fayetteville, Haynesville, Marcellus, Permian and Utica all reported more rig activity this week than they did last year.

The Permian reported three additional rigs this week compared to last, while Haynesville reported two, and the Eagle Ford, Marcellus and Utica each reported one added rig. The Permian, with 267 active rigs, remains the most active basin in terms of drilling by a factor of 5.7x compared to the Eagle Ford, the next most-active basin.

Canada continues to report higher levels of drilling with 48 rigs added to the countries count this week. There are currently 205 rigs drilling in Canada, according to the oilfield service company. At this time in 2016, there were 166 rigs drilling in the country, or 39 fewer than was reported for the week ended January 6, 2017.

Baker Hughes rig count for the week ended January 6, 2017

Source: Baker Hughes

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