Feb 8 (Reuters) - U.S. energy firms this week increased thenumber of oil rigs operating for the second time in three weeksafter oil prices soared over 18 percent in January.
Companies added 7 oil rigs in the week to Feb. 8, bringingthe total count to 854, General Electric Co's BakerHughes energy services firm said in its closely followed reporton Friday. <RIG-OL-USA-BHI>.
The U.S. rig count, an early indicator of future output, isstill higher than a year ago when 791 rigs were active afterenergy companies boosted spending in 2018 to capture higherprices that year.
In 2019, however, some drillers have said they plan toremove rigs due in part to forecasts for lower crude prices thanlast year.
In the Permian basin in West Texas and eastern New Mexicowhere more than half the U.S. oil rigs are located, active unitsfell by three this week to 478, their lowest level since July.The Permian is the nation's biggest shale oil field.
Liberty Oilfield Services Inc this week estimatedroughly 20 percent of the hydraulic fracturing fleets that wereactive in mid-2018 have now been idled or are being idled.
U.S. crude futures were trading slightly under $53 abarrel on Friday, down about 5 percent for the week on worriesof a global economic slowdown.
Looking ahead, crude futures were trading around $54 abarrel for the balance of 2019 and $55 for calendar2020. EIA projected West Texas Intermediate <WTC->spot crude would average $54.19 in 2019 and $60.76 in 2020, downfrom an average of $65.06 in 2018.
U.S. financial services firm Cowen & Co said this week thatearly indications from the exploration and production (E&P)companies it tracks point to a 1 percent increase in capitalexpenditures for drilling and completions in 2019.
Cowen noted larger spenders, like BP Plc and ChevronCorp, appear to be more resilient and have spending upyear-over-year, while smaller, gas-exposed operators aregenerally down.
In total, Cowen said those E&P companies spent about $88.7billion in 2018.
There were 1,049 oil and natural gas rigs active in theUnited States this week, according to Baker Hughes. Most rigsproduce both oil and gas.
Analysts at Simmons & Co, energy specialists at U.S.investment bank Piper Jaffray, this week forecast the averagecombined oil and gas rig count will fall from 1,032 in 2018 to999 in 2019 before rising to 1,087 in 2020. That was the same asits forecast last week.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavinoEditing by Susan Thomas and Chizu Nomiyama)
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