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Baker Hughes reports that the US oil and gas rig counts remained unchanged last week.

Baker Hughes reports that the US oil and gas rig counts remained unchanged last week.

Baker Hughes, a leading energy services company, said that the U.S. energy companies this week did not change the number of oil rigs and natural gas rigs in operation.

The number of oil and gas rigs, a good indicator of future production, remained at 592 during the week ending March 14. .

Baker Hughes reported that the total number of rigs is down 37 or 6% from this time last.

Baker Hughes reported that the number of oil rigs rose this week by one, to 487. The number of gas rigs dropped by one, to 100.

Oil and gas rig counts are expected to decline by 5% and 20% respectively in 2024, as the lower U.S. gas and oil prices in recent years have prompted energy companies to concentrate more on increasing shareholder returns and paying off debt than increasing output.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) projections show that crude production will continue to reach all-time levels for the next two year, even though analysts predict U.S. oil prices will stay the same in 2025.

The U.S. oil production will plateau at the end of the decade, said CEOs from Occidental Petroleum Occidental Petroleum ConocoPhillips this week in Houston during the CERAWeek Conference.

The EIA predicted a 73% price increase for gas. In 2025, a price drop of 14% in 2024 would cause producers to increase drilling in this year. Several energy firms had cut production in 2024 for the first since the COVID-19 epidemic reduced demand for fuel in 2020.

The projected production will increase from 103.2 billion cubic feet per days (bcfd) in 2024, to 105.2 bcfd and 107.5 bcfd by 2026.

Executives at CERAWeek said that U.S. gas consumption is expected to continue to reach record levels due to the soaring demand for liquefied gas (LNG) and power consumption by data centers. They also warned a lack infrastructure could harm the industry. (Reporting and editing by Marguerita Chy in Bengaluru)

(source: Reuters)