Permian Basin, U.S. rig counts soar

The rig count in the Permian Basin increased by three in the week ending Friday, the latest count by Baker Hughes shows, with 403 rigs active in the region.

Nationally, the oil and gas rig count increased by 15 to a total of 939 rigs. A year ago, 659 rigs were active. The count shows that 752 rigs sought oil, an increase of 10 from the previous week, and 187 explored for natural gas, an increase of five from the previous week. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May of 2016 at 404.

The regional benchmark Plains-West Texas Intermediate Posting ended Friday at $60.75 per barrel, up $2.75 from last week. National benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude ended at $64.30 per barrel, up $2.86 from last week.

ON THE NET: Baker Hughes rig count.