Baker Hughes reports that US drillers have cut their oil and gas rigs a second time in a week.

Baker Hughes, a leading energy services company, said in its closely watched report published on Friday that U.S. firms have cut back the number of natural gas and oil rigs for the second consecutive week.

In the week ending January 16, the oil and gas rig counts, an early indicator for future production, dropped by one, to 543. This is the lowest it has been since mid-December. .

Baker Hughes reported that the total rig count is down 37 rigs or 6% from this time last week.

Baker Hughes said oil rigs increased by one this week to 410, while gas-rigs dropped?by two, to 122. This is their lowest level since October.

Oil and gas rig counts declined by approximately?7% between 2025 and 2024 and by 20% in 2023, as lower U.S. crude oil prices led?energy companies to concentrate more on increasing shareholder returns and paying off debt than increasing production.

The independent exploration companies that are tracked by the financial services firm TD Cowen plan to maintain their capital expenditures at current levels in 2026, after cutting them by 4%?in 2020.

This compares to a roughly flat level of spending from year to year in 2024. In 2023, the increase was 27%, in 2022 it was 40%, and in 2021, it was 4%.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted that crude production would fall from a record 13.61 million barrels a day in 2025, to a little over 13.59 million barrels a day in 2026.

The EIA predicted that gas output would increase from a record 107.4 bcfd (billion cubic feet per day) in 2025, to 108.8bcfd by 2026. This was despite the fact that spot prices for the Henry Hub benchmark are expected to fall by about 2%. (Reporting and editing by Chris Reese, Nia Williams and Scott DiSavino)

(source: Reuters)