(Reuters) – U.S. energy firms this week added rigs for a fourth week in a row for the first time since early June, energy services firm Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report on Friday.
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The report, which Baker Hughes usually releases around 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Fridays, was delayed by around 49 minutes. Officials at Baker Hughes had no comment on the reason for the delay.
The total oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose by one to 581 in the week to July 10, its highest since May 2025.
Baker Hughes said this week’s increase put the total rig count up 44 rigs, or 8% above this time last year.
Baker Hughes said oil rigs held steady at 445 and gas rigs held at 126 this week, while other miscellaneous rigs rose by one to 10. In the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas, the rig count rose by three to 47, the highest since April 2025. In Texas, the nation’s biggest oil- and gas-producing state, the rig count rose by one to 272, the most since May 2025.
The oil and gas rig count declined by 7% in 2025, 5% in 2024, and 20% in 2023 as lower U.S. oil prices prompted energy firms to focus more on boosting shareholder returns and paying down debt rather than increasing output. But now with spot U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices expected to rise in 2026 due to supply disruptions from the Iran war after declining in 2023, 2024, and 2025, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected crude output will rise from a record 13.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2025 to 13.8 million bpd in 2026. On the gas side, EIA projected output will jump from a record 107.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2025 to 111.3 bcfd in 2026 as demand for the fuel rises to produce electricity for power-hungry data centers and for export as liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Mark Porter and Chizu Nomiyama
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