Crude oil trading at $74.15 just before the release
- total rig count 1047 versus 1052 last week
- Oil rigs 858 vs 862 last week
- Gas rigs 187 vs. 188 last week
Rigs have now declined for the 2nd week in a row.
U.S. crude oil inventories had a surprise 9.9 million drawdown in the week through June 22 (est was for 3.0M).
In addition the decline in supply from Iran is also helping to potentially sap supply. THis week, the Trump administration urged allies to cut import of Iran oil to 0 by November 4.
Potentially offsetting the drop in Iranian shipments is surging U.S. crude exports.
The EIA said the United States exported 3 million barrels per day of crude last week- a record
A headwind, however is that U.S. drillers in the Permian basin are facing a shortage of pipeline capacity and other bottlenecks that analysts believe will persist through next year. That may be a reason for the slowing of rig counts despite the higher price of oil.
Crude oil is trading at $74.22, up about $0.07 since the release.
