Baker Hughes reports that US drillers added oil and gas rigs in the US for the second consecutive week.

Baker Hughes, a leading energy services company, said that U.S. firms added oil and natural gas rigs this week for a second consecutive week for the first since December.

The number of oil and gas drilling rigs, a good indicator of future production, increased by two in the week ending January 30 to 546, its highest level since December.

Baker Hughes reported that despite this week's increase in rigs the total count is still 36 rigs or?6% lower than this time last year.

Baker Hughes reported that oil rigs remained at 411 in this week. Gas rigs, however, rose by three to 125 - their highest level since December - and miscellaneous drilling rigs dropped by one to 10

Oil and gas rig counts declined by 7%, 5%, and 20% between 2025 and 2023, as energy firms focused more on increasing shareholder returns and paying off debt than increasing production.

Baker Hughes reported that the Gulf of Mexico rig count dropped by one to seven this week, the lowest level since September 2021.

The Permian, America's largest oil-producing shale region, saw its rig count drop by two, to 242. This is the lowest it has been since July 2021.

In Pennsylvania, however, the number of rigs has risen by one, to 19, which is the highest level since August 2024.

The independent exploration companies that are tracked by the financial services firm TD Cowen have said they plan to maintain capital expenditures at current levels in 2026, after cutting their spending by 4% or so in 2025.

This compares to a roughly flat level of spending year-on-year in 2024 and increases of 27%, 40%, and 4%, respectively, in 2023.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA), predicting that U.S. crude spot prices would fall for the fourth consecutive year in 2026, projected that crude production would decline from a record 13,61 million barrels per a day (bpd), in 2025, to approximately 13.59?million barrels a day (bpd) by 2026.

The EIA predicted that gas production would increase from 107.4 billion cubic feet per day in 2025 to an estimated 108.8 billion cubic foot per day in 2026, even though the Henry Hub benchmark spot price was forecast to fall by about 2%. Reporting by Scott DiSavino, Editing by Chizu Gregorio and David Gregorio

(source: Reuters)