US Oil Drillers Add Rigs for 5th Week in a Row
U.S. drillers this week added oil rigs for a fifth consecutive week, Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday, but the oilfield services provider and some analysts cast doubts on a substantial recovery in drilling this year with crude prices heading for their biggest monthly loss in a year. Drillers added three oil rigs in the week to July 29, bringing the total rig count up to 374, compared with 664 a year ago, according to the closely followed Baker Hughes weekly report. U.S. crude futures have slipped below $41 a barrel for the first time since April, pressured by persistently high inventories. The market was on track for a monthly loss of about 15 percent, and is down about 20 percent from highs over $50 in early June when drillers started returning to the well pad.
Oil Prices Climb Again Amid Escalating Violence In Iraq
Crude oil prices rose to new nine-month highs on Friday as concerns persisted that an insurgency in Iraq could disrupt oil exports from the second-largest OPEC producer. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest religious authority for Shi'ites, on Friday urged his followers to take up arms against Sunni militants advancing south toward Baghdad, raising the prospect of further violence. The surge in both Brent and U.S. crude prices, up about $4 this week, lost some momentum on Friday as the market waited to see if the conflict in Iraq would threaten oil refineries south of Baghdad. "Right now the market is looking for a comfort zone," said James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics in London, Arkansas.
