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Shale Explorers Boost U.S. Drilling Again Despite Oil Price Collapse

Oil producers again boosted U.S. drilling this week despite the biggest quarterly drop in oil prices since 2014.

Shale Explorers Boost U.S. Drilling Again Despite Oil Price Collapse
Tug boats transport the Hess Corp. Stampede tension leg oil platform, towed from Kiewit Offshore Services Ltd., in this aerial photograph taken above Ingleside, Texas, U.S. (Photographer: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg)  

(Bloomberg) -- Oil producers again boosted U.S. drilling this week despite the biggest quarterly drop in oil prices since 2014.

Working U.S. oil rigs rose by 2 this week to 885, according to data released Friday by oilfield services provider Baker Hughes. More than 100 additional rigs have been deployed across American fields this year.

Still, drilling activity may be poised to slow as producers including Diamondback Energy Inc. and Parsley Energy Inc. scale back spending in response to the lowest crude prices in more than a year.

“We’re still going to have a lot of variation, but the rig count is definitely going to head down,” said James Williams, president of WTRG Economics in London, Arkansas, said last week. “There’s no doubt about that.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Adams-Heard in Houston at radamsheard@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net, Carlos Caminada

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