In the week ended May 13, the number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States totaled 318, compared with 328 in the prior week and 660 a year ago. Including 87 other rigs drilling for natural gas, there are a total of 406 working rigs in the country, down nine week over week and down 482 year over year. There is one rig listed as “miscellaneous.” The data come from the latest Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) North American Rotary Rig Count released on Friday.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for June delivery traded down about 1.1% on Friday to settle at $46.21, up about 3.5% for the week. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported last Wednesday that crude supplies had decreased by 3.4 million barrels in the week ended May 6, and that gasoline supplies had dropped by 1.2 million barrels.

The massive fire near Fort McMurray, Alberta, continues to burn, but its path has taken it away from the city and most of the oil sands production facilities. It is still too dangerous to allow residents to return, and by one estimate damage could exceed $9 billion. An estimated 2,432 homes and other structures have been destroyed and many left standing have been damaged.

As much as 1.2 million barrels a day of production may still be off-line, nearly half the region’s usual production rate. Minor damage has been reported at only one facility, but until evacuees are allowed back into their homes, production will continue to be curtailed.

The impact on global oil supplies and crude oil prices has not been severe because the shutdowns are viewed as temporary and even at their worst probably affected no more than 1% of the globe’s supply of crude oil. Last week’s price hikes had more to do with supply disruptions in Nigeria and Libya, both of which could continue to prop up prices in the coming weeks.

The number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States is down by 342 year over year and down by 10 week over week. The natural gas rig count rose by one to 87. The count for natural gas rigs is down by 136 year over year. Natural gas for June delivery closed the week at $2.09 per million BTUs, flat with the price at the end of the prior week. The low price for natural gas over the past 12 months is $1.84 per million BTUs.

U.S. refineries ran at 89.1% of capacity, a week-over-week increase of about 193,000 barrels a day. Imports rose by about 5,000 barrels a day, to around 7.7 million barrels a day in the week.

Hedge funds — under the Managed Money heading in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) weekly Commitments of Traders report — added 20,367 short contracts last week, and dropped just 659 long contracts. The movement reflects changes as of the May 10 settlement date. Managed money holds 284,570 long positions compared with 92,839 short positions. Open interest totaled 1,724,987. There were 53 hedge funds with large short positions last week, up by three compared with the prior week.

Among the producers themselves, short positions outnumber longs by about three to two, 493,060 to 209,526. The number of short positions rose by 20,180 contracts last week, and longs rose by 25,041 positions. Positions among swaps dealers show 244,831 short contracts versus 236,744 long positions. Swaps dealers dumped 5,857 contracts from their short positions last week and added 12,868 long positions.

Among the states, Texas lost seven rigs last week, Louisiana lost three and three states each lost one: North Dakota, Oklahoma and Wyoming. New Mexico added two rigs and California added one during the past week.

In the Permian Basin of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico, the rig count fell by five to 134. The Eagle Ford Basin in south Texas dropped one rig for a new total of 33, and the Williston Basin (Bakken) in North Dakota and Montana now has 24 working rigs, down one compared with the prior week.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) lists a posted price of $42.66 per barrel for WTI and a May 14 price of $43.61 a barrel for Eagle Ford crude. The price for both varieties rose by $1.55 a barrel over the past week. Enterprise has not posted a price for North Dakota Light Sweet for the past five weeks.

The pump price of gasoline rose by about 0.2% week over week. Saturday morning’s average price in the United States was $2.220 a gallon, up from $2.215 a week ago. The year-ago price was $2.679 a gallon.

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