U.S. oil & gas rig count falls for third week in a row - Baker Hughes

Comstock Resources

14/04/2023 18:18

April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. energy firms this week cut the
number of oil and natural gas rigs operating for a third week in
a row, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co  BKR.O  said in its
closely followed report on Friday.
    The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future
output, fell by three to 748 in the week to April 14.
 RIG-USA-BHI   RIG-OL-USA-BHI   RIG-GS-USA-BHI 
        Despite this week's rig decline, Baker Hughes said the
total count was still up 55 rigs, or about 8%, over this time
last year.
    U.S. oil rigs fell by two to 588 this week, their lowest
since June 2022, while gas rigs fell by one to 157.
    U.S. oil futures  CLc1  were up about 3% so far this year
after gaining about 7% in 2022. U.S. gas futures  NGc1 ,
meanwhile, have plunged about 53% so far this year after rising
about 20% last year.
    The drop in gas prices has already caused some exploration
and production companies, including Chesapeake Energy Corp
 CHK.O , Southwestern Energy Co  SWN.N  and Comstock Resources
Inc  CRK.N , to announce plans to reduce production by cutting
some gas rigs.
    Despite some plans to lower rig counts, the U.S. Energy
Information Administration (EIA) this week raised its forecast
for crude output growth.
    U.S. crude production was on track to rise from 11.9 million
barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 to 12.5 million bpd in 2023 and
12.8 million bpd in 2024, according to the EIA. That compares
with a record 12.3 million bpd in 2019.
    U.S. gas production, meanwhile, was on track to rise from a
record 98.09 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2022 to 100.87
bcfd in 2023 and 101.58 bcfd in 2024, according to federal
energy data.

 (Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu
Nomiyama)
 ((Brijesh.Patel1@thomsonreuters.com; Within U.S. +1 651 848
5832, Outside U.S. +91 9590227221; Reuters Messaging:
Brijesh.Patel1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
 
((For Refinitiv, formerly called Thomson Reuters Analytics, see: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=usa-gas
    For U.S./Canada natural gas rig count vs Henry Hub futures price, see: http://tmsnrt.rs/2eT9k44
    U.S. natural gas inventories: http://tmsnrt.rs/2ewaRk2
    For a list of all Baker Hughes rig counts around the world, see:  RIG-NOM-BHI 
    For U.S. oil rigs, see:  RIG-OL-USA-BHI 
    For U.S. gas rigs, see:  RIG-GS-USA-BHI ))