Hart Energy Unconventional Activity Tracker (Week of March 22, 2021)

U.S. Adds Nine New Rigs

U.S. energy firms added the most oil and gas rigs in a week since January 2021 even as oil prices this week pulled back from a recent 28-month high.

The oil and gas rig count is its highest since April, Baker Hughes Co. said in its latest weekly report. The rig count has climbed over the past seven months, up 68% since falling to a record low of 244 in August 2020, according to data from Baker Hughes going back to 1940. The total count is still 47%, below this time in 2020.

More than half the U.S. oil rigs are in the Permian Basin in West Texas and eastern New Mexico where total units rose to about 216 this week, the most since May. So far this year, drillers have added 41 rigs in the Permian Basin. That compares with no rigs added in the basin during the same period last year.

Oil output from the Permian, the top producing basin in the country, is expected to rise for a second straight month in April, the government said in a monthly forecast on March 15.

With prices mostly rising since October 2020, some energy firms have boosted spending in 2021 after cutting drilling and completion expenditures over the past two years. The spending increase, however, remains small as firms continue to focus on boosting cash flow, reducing debt and increasing shareholder returns rather than adding to output.

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