HOUSTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Exploration and production activity in North America surged 12 percent in the month that followed OPEC's output deal, an oilfield services company said.
Baker Hughes Inc. reported the total number of rigs actively drilling or exploring for oil and natural gas internationally was up four, or less than a half percent, from the November count of 925. From December 2015, the international rig count was down 15 percent.
Rig counts serve as a loose gauge of how willing companies are to spend on exploration and production. Counts have moved sharply lower since 2014, when oil prices started their steady decline below $100 per barrel.
Crude oil prices dropped below $30 per barrel in early 2016, but recovered to around $56 per barrel because members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed in November to a managed decline aimed at correcting an over-supplied market.
The subsequent rise in crude oil prices may have the unintended result of bringing operators back to the more expensive basins in the United States and Canada. North American production added to the surplus behind the downturn for oil prices.
Baker Hughes reports a total Canadian rig count for December at 209, an increase of 20 percent from the previous month. The total U.S. rig count was up just over 9 percent to 634, an increase of 54 rigs from November.
About 5 percent of all rigs working in the United States are deployed in North Dakota, the No. 2 oil producer in the country, behind Texas. Crude oil production from North Dakota peaked in 2014, when oil was trading near the $100 per barrel mark, at 1.2 million barrels per day, but faltered since oil dipped below $30 per barrel early this year.
The North Dakota Industrial Commission said that, since OPEC's agreement, oil and gas operators are shifting from running the minimum number of rigs to incremental increases throughout 2017, so long as oil prices remain above $50 per barrel.
The Texas Alliance of Energy Producers estimates total crude oil production for November was 93.7 million barrels, about 8.3 percent less than the prior year. That gauge was taken before OPEC's production agreement was reached.
