Baker Hughes reports that US oil and gas drillers have added rigs to their fleet for the third time in just four weeks.

Baker Hughes, a leading energy services company, said that U.S. energy companies added oil and gas rigs this week for the third consecutive time in just four weeks.

The number of oil and gas rigs, a good indicator of future production, increased by two in the week ending November 7 to 548.

Baker Hughes reported that despite this week's increase in rigs the total count is still 37 rigs or 6% lower than this time last year.

Baker Hughes reported that oil rigs remained at 414 in this week's report, while gas-rigs increased by three to 128 - their highest level since August 2023. The number of miscellaneous drilling rigs decreased by one, to six.

Oil and gas rig counts declined by 5% and 20% respectively in 2024, as lower U.S. gas and oil prices encouraged energy firms to concentrate more on increasing shareholder returns and paying off debt than increasing production.

The independent exploration companies (E&Ps) tracked by U.S. Financial Services firm TD Cowen have said that they plan to reduce capital expenditures in 2025 by 4% from the levels in 2024.

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, 4%.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration, (EIA), projected that even though analysts predicted U.S. crude spot prices would fall for the third consecutive year in 2025.

Crude output

The number of barrels produced per day would increase from the record 13,2 million bpd (barrels per day) in 2024, to 13.5 million bpd by 2025.

EIA predicted that a 56% rise in gas prices would be seen in 2025, which would encourage producers to increase drilling this year. A 14% drop in price in 2024 had caused several energy companies to reduce output for the very first time since 2020 when the COVID-19 epidemic reduced demand for fuel.

EIA project

Gas output

The volume of air pollution in the United States will increase to 107.1 billion cubic foot per day (bcfd), up from 103.2 billion cubic feet in 2024, and 103.6 bcfd at a record level in 2023. (Reporting and editing by Leslie Adler, David Gregorio, and Scott DiSavino)

(source: Reuters)