It’s not a fall temperature forecast, it’s a rig count.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading just above $45 per barrel on Friday afternoon while figures from the Baker Hughes rig count show that new drilling in the Eagle Ford Shale has fallen to 82 active rigs.
The figures mark the seventh week in a row that the rig count has been below 100. At this same time last year, there were 210 active rigs in the oil-rich region just south of San Antonio.
New drilling also fell to 245 rigs in the Permian Basin. Across the Lone Star State, new drilling went down from 363 to 357 rigs in one week’s time. Figures show that the overall number of rigs in the United States fell from 838 to 809 rigs.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that the supply side remains heavy with American crude oil inventories remaining at 80-year highs.
Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI) releases rig count data on a weekly basis. Rig count data is considered a barometer of oil drilling activity worldwide.
New oil rig activity provides business for a number of subcontractors out in the field. According to a recent study from the University of Houston, each drilling rig represents a total of 224 jobs both on and off the drilling pad.
