US oil rig count falls by a good 1,000 within one year

The ICE will be publishing the corresponding data for Brent at lunchtime today, they are likely to paint a similar picture. Oil prices are resuming their upward trend as the new week of trading gets underway, boosted among other things by US drilling activity data published on Friday evening by oil service provider Baker Hughes. 

The figures show that the oil rig count declined by another 9 last week, the sixth weekly decline in a row. During this time, the decrease has totalled 70. The oil rig count is at its lowest level since July 2010. Since achieving a record high a year ago, the oil rig count in the US has plunged by more than 1,000. 

"This points to a further decline in US oil production, which according to figures from the US Energy Information Administration has already dropped by 600,000 barrels per day as compared with its spring peak", says Commerzbank.