Baker Hughes reports that US drillers have cut their oil and gas rigs in the US for a third consecutive week.

Baker Hughes, a leading energy services company in the United States, said that U.S. firms have cut back on oil and gas rigs for a third consecutive week. The number of oil and natural gas rigs, a good indicator of future production, dropped by one in the week ending August 8th. Baker Hughes reported that oil rigs increased by one this week to 411, gas rigs decreased by one, to 123 and miscellaneous drilling rigs dropped by one, to five.

Oil and gas rig counts declined by around 5% in 2020 and 20% in 2023, as lower U.S. gas and oil prices in the last couple of years led energy firms to place more emphasis on increasing shareholder returns and paying off debt than increasing production. The U.S. financial firm TD Cowen tracked independent exploration and production companies (E&P), which said that they would cut capital expenditures in 2025 by about 4% from the levels in 2024.

This compares to roughly flat spending year-over-year in 2024 and increases of 27%, 40%, and 4%, respectively, in 2023. Analysts predicted that U.S. crude spot prices would fall for the third consecutive year in 2025. However, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA), crude production would increase from a record 13,2 million barrels a day (bpd).

The EIA predicted a 68% rise in the price of spot gas Prices in 2025 will prompt producers to increase drilling activity in this year. A 14% drop in price in 2024 forced several energy firms in the industry to reduce output for the very first time since 2020, when the COVID-19 epidemic reduced demand for fuel.

The EIA predicted that gas production would increase to 105.9 bcfd by 2025. This is up from 103.2 billion cubic feet (bcfd), and the record 103.6 bcfd of 2023. (Reporting and Editing by Marguerita Choy)

(source: Reuters)