The number of rigs actively drilling for oil in the U.S. made its first sizable increase of the year this week now that the price of oil has increased for more than three months, according to weekly data collected by Baker Hughes, via http://fuelfix.com/.
The U.S. oil rig count grew by nine this week, bringing the overall tally up to 325 rigs. Texas’ more resilient Permian Basin led the way with five rigs added to its count, while Alaska brought on three more rigs.
The change shows some signs of life returning to the gloomy oil patch with the U.S. benchmark for oil hovering just below $50 a barrel — a price that could bring small profits for many wells.
The overall rig count though only grew by four rigs because the amount of rigs seeking natural gas dipped by five. The total count now stands at 408 rigs. The previous tally of 404 rigs of the past two weeks represented the lowest total count since the oil field services company first began compiling the data in 1944. There are only 82 rigs actively looking for gas.
Despite this week’s jump, the oil rig count is down 80 percent from its peak of 1,609 in October 2014 before oil prices began plummeting.
This is the first time the oil rig count has grown since just one rig was added in mid-March. The last time the oil count saw a bigger jump than this week was in December.
The price of U.S. oil may have bottomed out in February at a settled low point of $26.21 on Feb. 11. The price was dancing around $48.50 early Friday afternoon, down almost 70 cents for the day.
