Breaking News! US Oil And Gas Rig Count Fell By 3 -- WTI Holds Steady! -- Oilprice -- June 21, 2019

Updates

Later, 3:38 p.m. CT: hallelujah! I asked for a bit more granularity on "that one rig," and Rigzone via Twitter provided the information. The nation's oil rig count increased by one last week -- it was in Texas. The nation's number of natural gas rigs declined. By four. Texas has dropped several rigs in a row. One will have to visit the article which I am not linking to see if these are natural gas rigs, oil rigs, or both.

Original Post 

Link here.

In fact, oil prices surged today, WTI up 32 cents at time story was initially posted, now up 59 cents/bbl. The increase was despite the fact that the number of active oil rigs actually increased. The decline was in natural gas rigs. This begs the question, of course: in the Permian, Eagle Ford, and Bakken, is every well drilled with two rigs: one for oil and one for natural gas?

The number of active oil rigs in the US increased by one, week-over-week.

Generally, an increase in the number of oil rigs is seen as a driver for lowering oil prices, but apparently not today, as the number of oil rigs increased by one, and the price of oil actually surged by 32 cents (WTI), at the time the story was first posted. Since then, the surge has continued, up 59 cents/bbl as this is being typed. That one oil rig will result in increased oil production and that should drive the price of oil down despite the tensions in the Mideast as adversaries prepare for all-out war. At least three of the adversaries have nuclear weapons and a fourth is well on its way to having nuclear weapons.

Year-to-date, the oil rig count has fallen from 877 active rigs since the beginning of the year to 789.

Despite the rig decline year-on-year, US production is still almost 2 million barrels per day higher year-on-year. And, you know, that drop is the number of active rigs is not trivial. From 877 to 789 that represents a decrease of more than 10% -- and that's just from the beginning of this year. And yet, US production has increased almost two million bopd year-over-year.

So, the overall rig count (oil and gas) reached its lowest point since February, 2018, and US production is higher by almost two million bopd year-over-year.

Who wudda thought?

I wonder if we could get a little more granularity on that one oil rig -- was it in the Bakken, in the Permian, or elsewhere?

Disclaimer: I often misread articles. There may be typographical and/or factual errors in this post. If this is important to you, go to the source.

This post has been tagged with "humor." Mostly because I don't yet have a tag for "sarcasm."

By the way, that jump in "OPEC basket" is a function of reporting. The "OPEC basket" is a 3-day delay according to the source. The jump in the OPEC basket occurred shortly after the US drone was downed by the Iranians but was not recorded until now due to that "3-day delay."