Baker Hughes reports that US drillers have added oil and gas rigs to their fleets for the second week running.

Baker Hughes, an energy services company, said in a closely-followed report on Friday that U.S. firms added oil and natural gas rigs this week for the second time in a row.

The number of oil and gas drilling rigs, a good indicator of future production, increased by two in the week ending March 13 to reach 553 - its highest level since November 2025.

Baker Hughes reported that despite this week's increase in rigs the total count is still?39 or 7% lower than this time last year.

Baker Hughes reported that oil rigs increased by a?1 to 412 in this week. This is their highest level since early February. Gas rigs also rose by one to 133.

Oil and gas rig counts declined by 7% in '2025, 5% a year later in 2024 and 20% in 2023, as energy firms focused more on increasing shareholder returns and paying off debt than increasing production.

Financial services company TD Cowen reported that all 18 exploration and production companies (E&Ps) it tracks plan to spend 1% less on capital expenditures by 2026 compared to 2025.

This compares to a decrease of?around 4 percent in 2025 and an increase of 27%, 40%, and 4%, respectively, in 2023 and 2022.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) projections showed that crude production would increase from a record 13,59 million barrels a day (bpd), in 2025, to 13,61 million bpd, in 2026.

EIA forecasts that gas output will?rise to a record of 107.7 billion cubic feet per day in 2025?and 109.5 bcfd by 2026?with spot prices at U.S. Henry Hub in Louisiana expected to rise by approximately 7% in the year 2026. (Reporting and editing by Chizu Gregorio and David Gregorio.)

(source: Reuters)