Video PlayerClose

HOUSTON, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The number of active drilling rigs in the United States remained unchanged at 1057, or 111 more than this time last year, showed weekly data collected by Baker Hughes released on Friday.

Meanwhile, the price of the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery and Brent for October delivery decreased by 2.54 percent and 1.35 percent, respectively, in the week ending Aug. 17.

The Houston-based oilfield services company reported that the number of active oil rigs remained unchanged at 869 this week with more than half of oil rigs, or 486, were located in Permian Basin region of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The number of gas rigs also remained unchanged at 186.

Canada's total rig count increased by three to 212 this week. Its oil rig count increased by one and its gas rig count increased by two this week. Canada's oil and gas rig count was down by two year on year. Its oil rigs were up by 20 year on year, while the number of gas rigs were down by 22 year on year.

Analysts attribute the major decline in the Canadian gas rig count to the very low gas prices on the Canadian natural gas spot market. The natural gas producers preferred curtailing their production rather than increasing in the current depressed market.

Oil prices were pressured on Wednesday as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a large build in the U.S. crude oil inventories. Furthermore, the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China, as well as the currency crisis in some emerging economies like Turkey, intensified downward movement in the oil prices.

Pressured by those negative factors, WTI and Brent declined by 2.42 percent and 1.95 percent, respectively, on Wednesday.

Anas Alhajji, an energy economist based in Dallas, Texas, told Xinhua that "prices declined due to higher inventories, trade tension, concerns on China's demand, and depreciation of currencies in emerging market economies and others."

Another factor that pressured the oil prices is the stronger U.S. dollar. U.S. Dollar Index has maintained above 96 level for this week.

"The main threat for growth in global demand this summer is the rising U.S. dollar," said Alhajji.

U.S. Dollar Index is a measure of the value of the U.S. dollar relative to a basket of foreign currencies. Oil is mostly traded in U.S. dollars all over the world and a stronger dollar pressures the oil demand.

During the week ending Aug. 17, the WTI for September delivery declined by 1.72 dollar to settle at 65.91 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, reporting a loss of 2.54 percent in the week. Brent crude October delivery declined by 0.98 U.S. dollar to settle at 71.83 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange, reporting a loss of 1.35 percent.

According to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report by EIA on Wednesday, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 6.8 million barrels during the week ending Aug. 10. In the previous week, EIA reported a draw of 1.35 million barrels.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 17.98 million barrels per day during the week, which was 383,000 barrels per day higher than the previous week's average.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 9.01 million barrels per day last week, which was 1.08 million barrels per day higher than the previous week's average. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged 8.12 million barrels per day, 0.9 percent higher than the same four-week period last year.

Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 700,000 barrels last week, about 0.9 percent above the levels of the same week last year.

Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.6 million barrels last week, but still 13.1 percent below the levels of the same week last year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 17.4 million barrels last week.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.85 million barrels per day, down by 1.6 percent from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline supplied averaged 9.65 million barrels per day, down by 1.0 percent from the same period last year.

Distillate fuel supplied over the last four-week period averaged 3.935 million barrels per day, down by 8.7 percent from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, jet fuel supplied averaged 1.85 million barrels per day, up by 3.4 percent from the same period last year. Enditem