In the week ended December 16, the number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States totaled 510, up by 12 compared with the prior week and down by 31 compared with a total of 541 a year ago. Including 126 other rigs drilling for natural gas and one rig listed as “miscellaneous,” there are a total of 637 working rigs in the country, up by 13 week over week and down 72 year over year. The data come from the latest Baker Hughes North American Rotary Rig Count released on Friday.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for January delivery traded up about 2.2% on Friday to settle at $52.03. Crude prices increased by about 1% week over week. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported last Wednesday that crude supplies had decreased by 2.6 million barrels in the week ended December 9, and that gasoline supplies had risen by 500,000 barrels.

On Friday, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) released its 2017 energy outlook with a view out to 2040. Population and economic growth drive energy demand growth, and, according to the report, China and India will account for 45% of global demand growth for oil by 2040.

Oil demand is expected to account for 32% of global energy demand growth as more cars and trucks will take to the world’s highways.

Demand for natural gas to generate electricity is expected to rise from 23% to 26% by 2040, and demand for coal as a fuel for power plants is projected to drop from 39% to 28%. Wind and solar generation currently account for 5% of the world’s electricity, and Exxon sees that rising to 13% by 2040.

Oil and natural gas are projected to account for nearly 60% of global fuel supplies in 2040 while nuclear and renewables are forecast to account for almost 25%.

The number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States is down by 31 year over year but up 12 week over week. The natural gas rig count increased by one to a total of 126. The count for natural gas rigs is down by 42 year over year. Natural gas for January delivery closed the week at $3.38 per million BTUs, down 34 cents on the near-month contract compared with the prior week.

Hedge funds — under the Managed Money heading in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC’s) weekly Commitments of Traders report — dropped 23,973 short futures and options contracts for WTI crude oil last week and added 8,688 long contracts. The movement reflects changes as of the December 13 settlement date. Managed money now holds 359,458 long positions compared with 56,312 short positions. Open interest totaled 2,952,284. There were 41 hedge funds with large short positions last week, unchanged from the prior week.

Among the producers themselves, short positions outnumber longs 670,158 to 417,932. The number of short positions rose by 12,671 contracts last week, and longs added 25,162 contracts. Positions among swaps dealers show 362,759 short contracts, versus 113,538 long positions. Swaps dealers added 27,788 contracts to their short positions last week and dropped 27,810 contracts from their long positions.

U.S. refineries ran at 90.5% of capacity, a week-over-week increase of about 57,000 barrels a day. Imports fell by about 934,000 barrels a day to over 7.4 million barrels a day in the week.

Among the states, Texas added 14 rigs last week, New Mexico added two and Colorado added one rig. Wyoming and Oklahoma each lost two and North Dakota dropped one rig.

In the Permian Basin of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico, the rig count now stands at 258, up 12 compared with the previous week’s count. The Eagle Ford Basin in south Texas has 44 rigs in operation, up one week over week, and the Williston Basin (Bakken) in North Dakota and Montana now has 31 working rigs, down one for the week.

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Enterprise Products Partners lists a December 17 posted price of $48.35 per barrel for WTI and $49.80 a barrel for Eagle Ford crude. The price for WTI and Eagle Ford crudes rose by 40 cents a barrel in the week.

The pump price of regular gasoline rose by three cents a gallon week over week. Saturday morning’s average price in the United States was $2.235 a gallon, up $0.03 compared with $2.205 a week ago. The year-ago price was $2.007 a gallon.

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