U.S. drillers this week added oil rigs for an eighth consecutive week, the longest recovery streak in the rig count in over two years, as crude prices rebounded toward the key $50-a-barrel mark that makes the return to the well pad viable. Drillers added 10 oil rigs in week to Aug. 19, bringing the total rig count to 406, compared with 674 a year ago, energy services firm Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday. The oil rig count has risen by 76 since the week ended July 1, the most weekly additions in a row since April 2014, after U.S. crude prices touched $50. Energy companies kept adding rigs despite prices dipping below $40 earlier this month but analysts have revised down rig count growth forecasts. Crude futures, however, have surged nearly $10 a barrel, or more than 20 percent, in just over two weeks […]

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