Latshaw drilling rig #19  in Stanton, Texas, on Monday, Dec. 27, 2021. (Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP)

The U.S. rig count increased by 6 this week as analysts continue to expect oil and gas production to increase this year.

The number of operating drill rigs rose nationally to 733 this week, according to oil field services company Baker Hughes. Oil and gas companies have added 272 rigs in the past year, a 59 percent increase from the 461 operating at this time last year.

The rig count had been steadily rising earlier in the year, boosted in part by high oil and gas prices and recovering demand from the pandemic, but declined or stayed flat the past two weeks. 

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Increasing demand is just one factor pushing prices to multiyear highs. Retaliatory sanctions on Russian oil and gas for Moscow’s war against Ukraine has made an already tight global supply even tighter, leading experts to predict $100-plus oil through the end of the year.

U.S. officials have been calling for companies to up production in an effort to bring down record-high gasoline prices and help make up for the Russian oil lost to the market. Most companies already had planned to increase output this year, though, and public companies remain focused on returning money to shareholders instead of quickly ramping up production. 

Even so, analysts predict that oil and natural gas production in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico will hit records this year. The U.S. benchmark for oil, West Texas Intermediate, settled just above $120 per barrel on Friday, down 84 cents from the previous day. 

Kyra Buckley is an energy reporter for the Houston Chronicle.

Kyra specifically covers the region's oil and gas companies, focusing on drilling and oil field services. Before joining the Chronicle's business desk in April 2022, Kyra covered energy at Houston Public Media for two years. She previously worked at NPR member stations in Colorado and Oregon, and is a 2015 graduate from the University of Oregon in journalism and political science.

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