Drilling in the Permian Basin in West Texas has held steady, but rigs are being idled elsewhere. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg News)
The number of rigs drilling for crude dropped again this week, a sign that U.S. producers are pessimistic about prices.
There are now 555 rigs drilling specifically for oil, down 15 from last week in the sharpest decline in oil-patch activity since the Covid lockdowns. The total is down 11% since the start of the year, in line with the decline in U.S. benchmark oil futures. Those have dropped from about $80 a barrel to around $70 lately.
The big pullback comes on the eve of OPEC's meeting this weekend.
