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United States drillers cut oil and gas rigs for 5th week in six, Baker Hughes states

U.S. energy firms today resumed cutting the variety of oil and gas rigs after including rigs recently, with the count falling for a 5th week in 6, energy services firm Baker Hughes said in its carefully followed report on Friday.

The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by two to 588 in the week to Sept. 20. << RIG-USA-BHI >< RIG-OL-USA-BHI >< RIG-GS-USA-BHI >> the overall rig count down 42 rigs, or 7%, below this time last year. Baker Hughes stated the variety of oil well was

the same at 488 today, while gas rigs fell by one to 96. The oil and gas rig count dropped about 20%

in 2023 after increasing by 33% in 2022 and 67% in 2021, due to a decrease in oil and gas rates, greater labor and equipment costs from skyrocketing inflation and as business focused more on paying down debt and boosting investor returns than raising output. U.S. oil futures were up about 0.6% so far in 2024 after dropping by 11% in 2023, while U.S. gas futures were down about 4% up until now in 2024 after plunging by 44% in 2023. The CEO of EQT, the biggest U.S. gas producer, sees prices for the fuel staying

below$ 3 per million British thermal units in the short-term . EQT, which previously this year cut production as prices fell to multi-year lows, expects curtailments to

reduce by next year on demand for melted gas exports. Several competitor U.S. shale gas manufacturers likewise cut drilling to stem overproduction.

(source: Reuters)