Another week, another uptick in the number of operational U.S. oil rigs and production projections; something that’s become a familiar theme for much of 2017 since the market intervention by OPEC and 11 major non-OPEC producers to take 1.8 barrels per day (bpd) of output off the global supply pool.
The move dragged market sentiment back in favor of oil prices above $55 per barrel for the first quarter of the year. While many in OPEC breathed a sigh of relief, the cartel’s intervention also ensured that US independent upstarts scrambled to hedge at $50 levels, in many cases, improving their crude extraction viability and not just their chances of survival.
