The number of oil and natural gas rigs operating in North America fell in the final week of March, data from oil services company Baker Hughes showed Friday.
The Baker Hughes Rig Count for North America declined from 810 to 797. The U.S. added three—two oil and one natural gas rigs—while Canada’s count dropped from 140 to 124.
This is the fifth consecutive weekly decline for Canadian oil rigs, bringing the count down to 64. Natural gas rigs in Canada have also fallen for five straight weeks. This springtime decline often happens as the northern hemisphere emerges from winter and typically lasts several weeks. Last year, the number of Canadian oil rigs fell from 100 in February to 17 in late April.
President Joe Biden on Thursday urged U.S. oil companies to increase production, threatening to impose fines upon those holding leases for oil drilling on federal lands that are not being used. He said the U.S. would release one million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to push down the price of oil and gasoline. That sent oil prices tumbling, which could discourage production.
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude contracts was down slightly on Friday to just below $100. The U.S. average for a gallon of gasoline was $4.215, a penny less than the day before and down around 28 cents from a week ago.
Oil producers say it will take several months to increase production. Many are wary of increasing production too quickly, fearing both a return of the oversupplied conditions that inflicted severe financial losses in the previous decade and Democratic initiatives aimed at curtailing or halting fossil fuel development and destroying demand in the name of fighting climate change.