(+) US weekly update

It has been a volatile week for benchmark crudes and prices hit their lowest levels since early June as falling US inventories has failed to lift prices. The ghost of weaker demand signals from China and signs that the physical crude market is not as tight as many analysts had expected earlier have weighed heavy on prices, together with a risk-off sentiment in the oil market. The downward spiral and three-week drop came to a halt as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East ignited a new belief in higher oil prices.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories excluding SPR decreased by 3.4 million barrels from the previous week. A 0.8 percent weekly draw puts U.S. crude oil inventories about 4% below the five-year average for this time of year at 433 million barrels. The SPR gained another 0.7 million barrels last week to offset some of the draws. Crude stocks including SPR for the week ending July 26 at 808.1 million barrels compared to previous week at a total of 810.9 million barrels.

US Rig Activity.

The Baker Hughes weekly rig count shows a small uptick in US activity in the past few weeks. Last data from July 26 showed a small total increase in active rigs. Gas focused rigs declined with two active rigs, but oil focused rigs gained five new active rigs for a total of 589 active rigs in the US. Gas 101, Oil 482 and Miscellaneous 6 active rigs. The total of 589 active rigs are 75 rigs lower than a year ago when there were 664 active rigs total in the US.

Baker Hughes has issued the rotary rig counts as a service to the petroleum industry since 1944, when Baker Hughes Tool Company began weekly counts of U.S. and Canadian drilling activity. Baker Hughes initiated the monthly international rig count in 1975. The North American rig count is released weekly at noon Central Time on the last day of the work week.

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