by Calculated Risk on 10/27/2017 06:45:00 PM

CR Note: Oil prices increased today with WTI at $53.90 per barrel, and Brent at $60.55. If those prices hold, we might see a pick up in the rig count going forward.

A few comments from Steven Kopits of Princeton Energy Advisors LLC on Oct 27, 2017:

• After last week’s bloodbath, rig counts rebounded modestly this week

• Total US oil rigs were up 1 to 737

• Horizontal oil rigs were up 2 to 630
...
• The gap between Brent and WTI continues to widen, today standing at $6.60 / barrel, and both WTI and Brent were commensurately strong, with WTI adding $1.40 just today.

• I think we’re likely reaching a local peak for WTI, so I expect we’ll see some retrenchment in the next few weeks somewhere, but the numbers speak to substantially stronger global oil demand than analysts currently think.

Click on graph for larger image.

CR note: This graph shows the US horizontal rig count by basin.

Graph and comments Courtesy of Steven Kopits of Princeton Energy Advisors LLC.