Baker Hughes Friday: US Rigs Hit 595, Highest Since May 2024, as Gas Drilling Reaches 3-Year High and WTI Settles at $99.53

The U.S. active rig count reached 595 for the week ending September 18, 2026, according to Baker Hughes. That is the highest total since May 2024 and marks the second consecutive weekly gain. Oil rigs added two to 452 and gas rigs added two to 134 while miscellaneous rigs held steady at nine.

Gas Rigs Reach Highest Level Since July 2023

U.S. gas rigs climbed two to 134, their highest since July 2023, reversing a brief retreat that followed a five-rig surge in late August. The September 4 Baker Hughes count showed gas rigs at 130 after Haynesville shed one to 56 and Marcellus dropped one to 23. Those two basins together account for 60.8% of all U.S. gas-directed drilling. This week's 4-rig gas gain signals a shift in operator sentiment ahead of winter demand season.

Coterra Energy and Chesapeake Energy are the largest Haynesville operators by volume. Williams Companies' completed $5.5 billion acquisition of Momentum Midstream added Haynesville gathering capacity that supported the uptick. Forward LNG export contracts and pre-drilling for LNG Canada Phase 2 are additional demand signals for Appalachian and Gulf Coast gas rigs.

WTI Settles at $99.53 as Saudi Supply Fears Ease

WTI crude settled at $99.53 per barrel on Friday's NYMEX close, down $2.38 or 2.34% on the session, according to Investing.com closing data. Brent crude settled at $103.19 per barrel on Friday's ICE session, down $1.63 or 1.56%, with an intraday high of $105.00 per barrel. Both benchmarks have retreated from the $109 levels reached on September 10 when Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline went offline.

Drone strikes took Saudi Aramco's Petroline offline on September 10-11, disrupting 7 million barrels per day of overland export capacity. Aramco rerouted crude through the Persian Gulf via Ras Tanura and via Oman's Sohar port. Progress on partial pipeline restoration reduced the supply premium. Saudi Arabia's crude production fell to 6.238 million barrels per day in August, the lowest monthly level since 1990, per OPEC's September Monthly Oil Market Report.

Permian Adds One Rig; Bakken Gains Three

The Permian Basin added one rig to approximately 269 active units, holding 45.2% of all U.S. drilling. That compares to 268 Permian rigs on September 4 and a January 2026 low of 242, an 11.2% gain year-to-date. ExxonMobil, through its XTO unconventional subsidiary and the 2024 Pioneer acquisition, reported record Permian output of 1.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day this quarter. The Bakken formation gained three rigs, the largest single-basin jump of the week, consistent with post-acquisition drilling activity.

WCS-WTI Differential Tighter Than AER Forecast

Western Canadian Select traded at $89.56 per barrel on Friday, per OilPriceAPI data, versus WTI's $99.53 settlement. That yields a WCS-WTI discount of $9.97 per barrel, roughly $2 narrower than the Alberta Energy Regulator's 2026 base-case differential forecast of approximately $12 per barrel. At Canada's oil sands output of roughly 3.5 million barrels per day of synthetic crude and dilbit, a $2-per-barrel differential beat adds approximately $2.6 billion of annualized incremental revenue above the AER modeled baseline. Suncor Energy and other Alberta producers are direct beneficiaries of the tighter spread.

Canadian drilling fell 10 rigs to 197 for the same period, dropping below 200 for the first time this fall, per Baker Hughes. Seasonal activity compression ahead of freeze-up drives the decline. Canadian rigs remain eight higher year-over-year.

IEA Flags Steeper Demand Decline; US Rigs Rise 9.8% Year-Over-Year

The IEA's September 2026 Oil Market Report forecasts global oil demand to fall 2.5 million barrels per day in 2026, a 940,000 barrel-per-day steeper revision than the August forecast. According to the IEA, ongoing U.S.-Iran tensions are delaying Iranian output normalization. Observed global oil inventories fell a further 95 million barrels in August, reaching a 507-million-barrel cumulative deficit since February. At 595 rigs, the U.S. count stands 53 units above the equivalent week a year ago, a 9.8% year-over-year increase even as WTI tests the $100 threshold.