U.S. drillers add oil rigs, total biggest since April 2015
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Drillers added 3 oil rigs in the week to August 11 bringing the total count up to 768, the most since April 2015, Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report on Friday.
That compares with 396 active oil rigs during the same week a year ago. Drillers have added rigs in 56 of the past 63 weeks since the start of June 2016.
The rig count is an early indicator of future output. U.S. production is expected to rise to 9.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2017 and a record 9.9 million bpd in 2018 from 8.9 million bpd in 2016, according to federal projections. ■