With extreme cold weather in North America amid production back near record highs drilling rigs face seasonal challenges. U.S. oil rigs fell this week while Canada added back 36 rigs as WTI crude futures trading to near 3 year highs.
With extreme cold weather in North America amid production back near record highs drilling rigs face seasonal challenges. U.S. oil rigs fell this week while Canada added back 36 rigs as WTI crude futures trading to near 3 year highs. 
- U.S. oil rigs 5 to 742 and U.S. natural gas rigs were steady at 182 General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes reported.
- General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes reported Canada added 36 oil rigs and also added 2 gas rigs.
U.S. oil and gas production continues to rise underscoring the efficiency of the drilling rigs, bouncing back to near record highs this past week. We saw rigs off per companies plans at their last earnings guidance, with oil prices high will they add more soon?.
The Total North America rig count rose 33 to 1098 up 228 year on year.
Shale production has been lifted by the smaller niche producer and majors like ExxonMobil. Last year Exxon CEO Darren Woods said $XOM is diverting about one-third of its drilling budget this year to shale fields that will deliver cash flow in as little as three years. The Texas Permian basin is the epicenter of activity. CERAWeek in Houston added to the drilling positive tone and appears we haven’t looked back after the past few weeks earnings reports for the most part.
Since a six-year low of 316 in May 2016 drillers have added over 100% despite the recent pullback. Total oil and natural gas rig count ended 2016 at 658, down 6 percent from the 698 at the finish of 2015. Baker Hughes North American Rig Summary
Source: Baker Hughes, TradersCommunity
From The TradersCommunity News Desk