In the week ended May 6, the number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States totaled 328, compared with 332 in the prior week and 668 a year ago. Including 86 other rigs drilling for natural gas, there are a total of 415 working rigs in the country, down by five week over week and down 479 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 up about 0.5% on Friday to settle at $44.56, down about 0.3% for the week. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported last Wednesday that crude supplies had increased by 2.8 million barrels in the week ended April 29 and that gasoline supplies had increased by 500,000 barrels.

Without the impact of several major supply disruptions last week, crude prices may have fallen even further. The massive fire near Ft. McMurray, Alberta, has forced the evacuation of some 88,000 people and burned about 1,600 structures. Fortunately there have been no deaths reported.

There has been no reported damage to facilities in the oil sands region, but as much as 1 million barrels a day may have been shut-in due to the fire. That amounts to about 40% of daily production.

The fire has burned an area of about 386 square miles, 10 times the size of Manhattan, and could double in size over the weekend, according to a report in The Globe and Mail. The provincial government has given evacuees a debit card pre-loaded with $1,250 for each adult and $500 for each dependent to help residents meet immediate needs.

Other disruptions to global supply include a shutdown of a Chevron-operated platform offshore of Nigeria, a drop in Venezuelan production and a threat to Libyan exports. Including the year-over-year production decline in the United States, more than another million barrels a day are out of production.

The number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States is down by 340 year over year and down by five week over week. The natural gas rig count dropped by one to 86. The count for natural gas rigs is down by 135 year over year. Natural gas for June delivery closed the week at $2.09 per million BTUs, down five cents from $2.14 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 89.7% of capacity, a week-over-week increase of about 139,000 barrels a day. Imports rose by about 110,000 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 — dumped just 258 short contracts last week and also dropped 10,968 long contracts. The movement reflects changes as of the May 3 settlement date. Managed money holds 285,229 long positions compared with 72,472 short positions. Open interest totaled 1,748,628. There were 50 hedge funds with large short positions last week, up by 1 compared with the prior week.

In our report on the EIA’s inventory changes, we noted that managed money now holds long positions (futures and options combined) on 791 million barrels of crude and short positions on just 128 million barrels. That is a huge bet that oil prices will rise.

Among the producers themselves, short positions outnumber longs by almost three to one, 472,880 to 184,485. The number of short positions rose by 11,828 contracts last week and longs rose by 14,494 positions. Positions among swaps dealers show 250,688 short contracts versus 223,876 long positions. Swaps dealers dumped 4,002 contracts from their short positions last week and added 3,200 long positions.

Among the states, Oklahoma lost three rigs last week, Louisiana lost two and four states — Alaska, Colorado, North Dakota and Ohio — each lost one. Texas added three rigs and Utah added one in the week.

In the Permian Basin of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico, the rig count rose by five to 139. The Eagle Ford Basin in south Texas dropped three rigs for a new total of 34, and the Williston Basin (Bakken) in North Dakota and Montana now has 25 working rigs, down one with the prior week.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) lists May 7 posted prices of $41.11 per barrel for WTI and $42.06 a barrel for Eagle Ford crude. The price for both varieties rose by $2.48 a barrel over the past week. Enterprise has not posted a price for North Dakota Light Sweet for the past six weeks.

The pump price of gasoline rose by about 0.3% week over week. Saturday morning’s average price in the United States was $2.215 a gallon, up from $2.208 a week ago. The year-ago price was $2.651 a gallon.

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