By Scott DiSavino
(Reuters) - U.S. energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for the first time in four weeks, energy services firm Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report on Thursday.
The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose by two to 585 in the week to April 17.
Baker Hughes released the rig count report one day early on Thursday due to the Good Friday holiday.
Despite this week’s rig increase, Baker Hughes said the total count was still down 34 rigs, or 5% below this time last year.
Baker Hughes said oil rigs rose by one to 481 this week, while gas rigs gained one to 98.
In the Utica shale basin, which covers parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, drillers added two rigs, bringing the total rig count to 13, the highest since February 2024.
The oil and gas rig count declined by about 5% in 2024 and 20% in 2023 as lower U.S. oil and gas prices over the past couple of years prompted energy firms to focus more on boosting shareholder returns and paying down debt rather than increasing output.
Even though analysts forecast U.S. spot crude prices would decline for a third year in a row in 2025, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected crude output would rise from a record 13.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2024 to around 13.5 million bpd in 2025.
That increase in U.S. crude output, however, was lower than EIA’s outlook in March due to lower oil price forecasts as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs increase the chances of weaker global economic growth and oil demand.
The EIA’s annual forecast this week also showed that the nearly two-decades-old shale boom that turned the U.S. into the world’s largest oil producer is drawing closer to its end, challenging Trump’s vision of unleashing higher domestic oil supply.
U.S. oil output will peak at 14 million bpd in 2027 and maintain that level through the end of the decade, before rapidly declining, the EIA said. Shale production will peak at 10 million bpd in 2027, up from about 9.7 million bpd this year, and then fall to 9.3 million bpd by 2050.