Oil and Gas Stock Roundup: The Rig Count Keeps Tumbling, Pulling Service Stocks With It
On the one hand, it was a quiet week in the oil market. Crude didn't do all that much, ending the week roughly flat at around $51.50 for WTI and $57.50 for Brent. That's despite some bullish commentary from OPEC's secretary general, Mohammad Barkindo, who noted that rebalancing in the market was happening at an "accelerated pace."
One of the reasons for this improvement is that shale drillers in the U.S. continue cutting rigs from their fleet, which is slowing production growth. According to the latest count from Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHGE), drillers in the U.S. dropped 15 rigs this week. That's on top of the eight they cut last week and marked the sixth decline in the past seven weeks. That reduction in the rig count, as well as cautious third-quarter earnings reports from oil service giants Baker Hughes and Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), weighed most heavily on oil service stocks this week according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
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Source: Fool.com