(Adds natural gas rig count)
April 8 (Reuters) - U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a
third week in a row to the lowest level since November 2009, oil
services company Baker Hughes Inc BHI.N said Friday, as energy
firms keep slashing spending despite crude futures prices
jumping roughly 50 percent since hitting a near 13-year low in
February.
Drillers cut 8 oil rigs in the week to April 8, bringing the
total rig count down to 354, Baker Hughes said in its closely
followed report. RIG-OL-USA-BHI
The number of U.S. oil rigs currently operating compares
with 760 rigs operating in the same week a year ago. In 2015,
drillers cut on average 18 oil rigs per week for a total of 963
for the year, the biggest annual decline since at least 1988
amid the biggest rout in crude prices in a generation.
Before this week, drillers cut on average 13 oil rigs per
week for a total of 174 so far this year.
Energy firms have sharply reduced oil and natural gas
drilling since the selloff in crude markets began in mid-2014.
U.S. crude futures CLc1 collapsed from over $107 a barrel in
June 2014 to a near 13-year low around $26 in February.
U.S. drilling services company Patterson-UTI Energy Inc
PTEN.O said it had 64 drilling rigs in operation in March,
compared with 142 during the same month in 2015.
But with U.S. crude futures trading around $40 a barrel, up
about 50 percent since hitting the February low, some analysts
think the rig count will rise later this year and next year as
prices increase.
Looking forward, U.S. crude futures were fetching around $42
a barrel for the balance of 2016 CLBALst and about $44 for
calendar 2017 CLYstc1 .
With the decline in oil rigs this week and an increase of
one natural gas rig RIG-GS-USA-BHI , total U.S. oil and gas
rigs fell for a 16th week in a row, down seven to 443, the
lowest since at least 1940, according to Baker Hughes data going
back that far.
Analysts at Cowen & Co, a U.S. financial services firm, this
week estimated the number of active U.S. natural gas and oil
rigs would slide from an average 559 in the first quarter to 411
in the second quarter and 401 in the third quarter before rising
to 415 in the fourth quarter.
In Texas, meanwhile, land rigs fell below 200 to 195 for the
first time since at least 2000.
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Graphic on U.S. rig counts http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/15/rigcount/index.html
U.S. natural gas rig count versus futures price http://link.reuters.com/nuz86t
Thomson Reuters Analytics natural gas data reuters://screen/verb=Open/URL=cpurl://pointcarbon.cp./trading/gmtna/
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